


Very Good Bad Thing

by UniqueMemoria



Category: South Park
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst with a Happy Ending, Fighting, Fluff, I'll add tags as they come up, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Underage Drinking, hero x villain, love square, super powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UniqueMemoria/pseuds/UniqueMemoria
Summary: "If I can ask, what are those papers for anyway? Homework or something?” The question seemed to earn a little laugh from the blonde, and Kenny tilted his head.“No no, not homework. It’s for my job. I work for the Denver Newspaper! The last article I was working on got corrupted after I printed it.. So this is the only copy I have of it.”Kenny nodded in understanding. “I see. Well, I guess that’s why you were so panicked about losing it then… Working for the paper though, that’s really cool! What’s that article of yours about anyhow?”The other’s bright blue eyes quickly lit up at the question, as if it was something he had been waiting to hear. The excitement only continued to be clear in his tone of voice as he explained, “I focus on Mysterion articles! You know about him, don’t you? I was lucky enough to get assigned to write any news on him. This article in particular is about that bank robbery he stopped a couple weeks ago.”
Relationships: Kenny McCormick/Leopold "Butters" Stotch, Kyle Broflovski/Stan Marsh, Mysterion/Professor Chaos (South Park)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 107





	1. The Train

**Author's Note:**

> once again naming my multichap after a song! This time it's named after the song Very Good Bad Thing by Mother Mother! <3

The night’s icy cold air was biting into his skin as he made his way across the rooftops. As much as this outfit of his made fighting easier, it didn’t do much to help with the cold. Mysterion paused on top of one of the rooftops nearest to his apartment complex to catch his breath, unable to help the slight shivers running through his body from the cold temperature. Usually, the adrenaline from all the fighting kept him warm enough, but it had been an extra slow night tonight. It was rare for Denver to have such quiet nights lately, so it usually wasn’t much of a problem. 

He maybe felt a little grateful for the slow night this time though. He had an interview for a job in the morning, so he hadn’t planned on staying out too late if he could help it. Even better yet, he felt glad that a certain someone hadn’t shown up all night either. It was odd for him to be so quiet like this, but he tried to not worry about it too much. After all, the villain in question not showing up was better than him causing trouble, he supposed. 

Mysterion took a breath, pulling out a small grappling hook from his belt and only briefly spinning it before tossing it towards the apartment complex in front of him. Most of the buildings in town were easy enough to jump to or climb up on his own, but this little tool came in handy for when he needed extra help. The jump to his apartment building was just a bit too big for him to ever make it with ease from the rooftops, however. 

Once he got the hook caught onto the fire escape, he gave it a few hard tugs to make sure it was snug. Once sure it would hold his weight, Mysterion took another breath and hopped himself off of the roof and over onto the fire escape. If he was lucky, his roommates would already be in bed. When he eventually got his way to his window however, he already could hear their voices ringing out through the apartment as he climbed inside. He gave a silent sigh, quietly beginning to change out of his costume in silence as he listened in on whatever it was the two were arguing about this time. 

“-said you had two weeks to do this, a week ago. What do you mean it’s due tomorrow?” Kyle’s voice rang through the house, very clearly already higher in volume than an average indoor voice. An exasperated sigh from Stan was heard right afterwards.

“Because I knew you’d get mad at me. Look, it’s fine. I’m going to write it all tomorrow morning before my class.”

“Stan- that’s… “ Kyle returned a sigh. “That’s not enough time to write a five page essay.” 

Kenny, now stuffing his Mysterion costume away into hiding, found himself rolling his eyes at the situation he had been expecting to happen. He already knew Stan was lying about his essay’s due date, but Kenny obviously had no intentions on letting Kyle know that himself. Snitching on a bro is completely unacceptable. A quick glance at his clock told him it was already two in the morning. Well, they were awake, and Kenny needed to eat. 

So, with a deep breath, Kenny pushed himself towards his door, carefully pulling it open and wordlessly heading down the hall. 

“You’re going to fail if you keep on like this. The semester just started and you’re already missing assignment after assignment!” Kyle was still going on. 

Stan groaned a little. “Look, I- oh! Hey, Kenny!” Stan seemed to try to immediately turn the attention onto Kenny the minute he came out into view. Kenny didn’t say a word, though, only raising a hand in greeting as he walked past them for the fridge. Kyle was clearly unamused. 

“Oh no, don’t go trying to change the subject, Stan. I’m serious! You need to stop slacking. We worked really hard on getting you into this college with me, you know?"

“Ughh, look, I know that. It’s fine, I’m telling you! Dude, I have plenty of time to make up the grades and still pass.” 

Kenny sighed again as Kyle’s volume only raised further at that. He rummaged through the fridge as he listened to the argument continue on behind him, soon pulling out a plain bagel and kicking the fridge door shut. He didn’t have any interest listening to their argument any longer, so he gave a dramatic sigh as he walked back past them.

“I’m going back to bed.” Kenny spoke up bluntly, hoping the comment would make the two actually quiet down. Thankfully for him, it seemed to have worked, because within minutes he was finally welcomed to mostly silence once inside his bedroom. Taking a bite of the bagel in his hand, Kenny flopped himself onto his bed with a heavy sigh. 

He had an interview for a possible job in the morning, and he was beginning to think maybe he should have gone a single night without doing the super hero stuff. He was exhausted, even with it being such a slow night. A quick glance at his clock again reminded him he wouldn’t be getting hardly enough sleep, either. 

Kenny was really hoping for this job. Although Kyle and Stan were nice enough to let him share an apartment with them and all, he still had to help with rent. And as of right now, he was completely broke, unfortunately. If only his Mysterion bullshit had a paycheck, then he’d have no problems. 

Stan and Kyle had mentioned they planned on moving to Denver to attend the school there, and were kind enough to ask Kenny if he wanted to come with them. Kenny had made it clear many times he wanted to get out of his house, and South Park as a whole, so he had seen no reason to decline. Now, he was wondering if he was regretting the decision, though. The two got into arguments far more often than he would like. The apartment was small, so every single time they got into fights like this there wasn’t any way to avoid it. 

It had already been a few months since the three had moved to the city, and Kenny hadn’t had any luck finding a job yet. The two had already gotten on his ass about it a few times now, and he didn’t necessarily blame them. It wasn’t cheap to live in downtown Denver like this, and with the two of them doing school almost full time, they didn’t work enough to actually keep up with rent. They were simply lucky that both Kyle and Stan’s parents were letting them borrow money for the time being, but that wouldn’t last forever. 

If worse came to worse, Kyle and Stan would be forced to get dorms at the school while Kenny returns to South Park. Kenny couldn’t allow that to happen.

Taking the last bite of his bagel, Kenny was already finding himself regretting staying out so late. Who had interviews at seven in the morning for a convenience store job anyway? Then again, it was his own fault for agreeing to the time, really. Kenny gave out one more groan as he yanked his covers over his head. He was fully ready to just pass out at that point, but he briefly lifted the covers again to double check that he had his alarm set, and that his phone was charging, before retreating back under the covers again. He hadn’t realized just how exhausted he was until he closed his eyes, feeling himself drift off to sleep within minutes. 

Unfortunately, only barely four hours later his alarm rang angrily out into his ears, stirring him from his very unfinished sleep. Kenny almost debated skipping the interview all together, but he knew that was a horrible idea. So, he groaned out as he reluctantly sat himself up and reached over to shut his alarm off. 

Kenny felt like he could sleep for another ten hours at least. He hoped a quick shower would wake him up a bit more, so he sighed as he ran a hand through his messy hair and pushed himself up to his feet. A quick trip to his closet to pick out some decent clothes for an interview, and he was making his way out of his bedroom. He planned on taking the train, since it had a stop only a couple blocks away from the store. He knew a bus would be cheaper, but the bus schedule just didn’t line up for his interview, unfortunately for him. It was times like this he wished he had a car to drive. 

Not wanting to risk missing the train, Kenny tried to not take too long on his shower. Before long, he was already out and dressed. He made sure his usual mess of hair was combed out and that all of his piercings were removed. He had a feeling they wouldn’t have a problem with his piercings if he actually got the job, but interviews always were different. It was kinda dumb, if you asked him. 

Kenny took a quick trip back into his bedroom to grab his phone, double checking the time and feeling thankful he wasn’t anywhere near running late yet. He didn’t plan on wasting time though, and already quickly made his way back out of the room after pulling on his parka and shoving his phone into one of the pockets. 

It was around six in the morning, so part of him didn’t feel surprised when he saw Stan still out in the living room. He was sitting at the couch with his laptop sitting on the coffee table in front of him, and he looked _exhausted._ Kenny couldn’t help but give a small chuckle as he stepped into the room, pushing his hands comfortably into his jacket pockets. 

“Hey, dude. You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”

Stan looked over to him with tired eyes, groaning out drowsily. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t get any work done on this stupid essay either, and my class is in like an hour. Ughh…”

Kenny rolled his eyes at that, but the smug grin never left his face. “You know you should’ve done it earlier. You’d never tell Ky’ that though.” 

“Of course I wouldn’t! It was so much easier to get away with this stuff when we didn’t live together, you know?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why you don’t just do your work sooner, man.” Kenny shook his head with another chuckle. He tilted his head after that. “Where Ky’ at anyway? He already left for class?”

Stan leaned himself back against the couch, sighing. “Yeah, he left a little while ago. Not before chewing my ear out for this stupid essay though.” Stan looked up from his computer screen to look over at Kenny now, raising a brow. “Why are you up so early? Is your interview today?”

“Yep.” Kenny sighed. “Sadly.” He gave a quick glance to the clock on the wall, holding back a groan. He needed to get going. “Speaking of, I gotta go or I’m gonna miss my train. Good luck with that essay…” Kenny began to head for the front door, snickering a little as he opened it up. “-and with Kyle.” He decided to add, before walking out and shutting the door behind him. 

As Kenny made his way down towards the elevators he fished some headphones out of his parka pocket and shoved them into his phone and then into his ears. A voice in the back of his mind told him to not have both of them in to prevent any deaths he wouldn’t hear coming, but he couldn’t be bothered to listen to it. 

He was feeling rather thankful the closest train stop wasn’t far, and it only took a few minutes for him to reach it after a short walk. A quick check on his phone told him that he still had a few minutes before the train was supposed to show up. So, he relaxed himself onto one of the benches. 

While mindlessly tapping his foot to the beat of the music in his ears, Kenny glanced around the station, noting how empty it was. He figured it’d be more busy around this time, with people trying to get to work. Then again, this area was mostly populated with college kids, and the school was within walking distance from here, so he wondered if that was why it was so barren. He let his thoughts continue to go on while the music kept him distracted. 

Soon enough, the sound of a train horn reached his ears over the sound of his music, and he reached a hand up to pull one of the earbuds out. Pushing himself up to his feet, he caught sights of the train coming towards them from a little ways away.

“Oh thank goodness I made it in time!” A voice suddenly reached his ears now, causing him to quickly turn his attention towards it instead. Before he even had time to observe exactly who it came from, he heard a yelp and jumped a little when papers suddenly fluttered around the station. Kenny didn’t hesitate to move and quickly grab as many as he could as if on auto pilot, stopping them from being lost to the wind while the train horn continued to get louder behind them. 

“Ah, no no no.. oh hamburgers…!” That same voice was speaking in a panic, and Kenny quickly realized it was the blonde nearby who seemed to have dropped his bag to the ground immediately after arriving and was now frantically trying to gather up the papers spilling from it. Kenny managed to stop all the papers he could grab from being blown away, and knelt himself in front of the blonde. He helped finish gathering up the last of the papers on the ground in front of him, and handed them out to the boy with a smile. The train was done loudly screaming it’s horn, and people were moving around them as they exited and entered the vehicle behind him.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I don’t think you lost any of them.” Kenny quickly tried to assure the panicked blonde, and when he looked up at him now, Kenny couldn’t help but feel his heart jump in his chest a little now that he got a look at him. He had bright sky blue eyes, although his left one was a bit lighter in color and there seemed to be a faint scar running through it. He had a cute little nose and had a nice hairstyle too, with the sides all shaved and some slightly curled blonde hair on top all pushed to one side. He was remarkably cute… Kenny quickly tried to shake the thought away.

The boy gave him a grateful smile, taking the papers from him and carefully putting them back into the messenger bag that he had dropped. “Oh thank you so much, mister! I would be so dead if I lost these.” 

“It’s no problem. You should be more careful, yeah?” Kenny carefully pushed himself back to his feet once the papers were secured in the blonde’s bag. He reached a hand out towards him, and carefully helped pull him up to his feet as well.

“Well, I suppose I should. I was just so worried about missing the train.” The blonde quickly explained once on his feet. Kenny decided to continue holding conversation as he led them onto the crowded train. 

“Lucky for you, you didn’t. If I can ask, what are those papers for anyway? Homework or something?” The question seemed to earn a little laugh from the blonde, and Kenny tilted his head.

“No no, not homework. It’s for my job. I work for the Denver Newspaper! The last article I was working on got corrupted after I printed it.. So this is the only copy I have of it.”

Kenny nodded in understanding. “I see. Well, I guess that’s why you were so panicked about losing it then… Working for the paper though, that’s really cool! What’s that article of yours about anyhow?”

The other’s bright blue eyes quickly lit up at the question, as if it was something he had been waiting to hear. The excitement only continued to be clear in his tone of voice as he explained, “I focus on Mysterion articles! You know about him, don’t you? I was lucky enough to get assigned to write any news on him. This article in particular is about that bank robbery he stopped a couple weeks ago.” The train finally started moving now.

Kenny almost felt a bit nervous at that, although he couldn’t help but also feel a little flattered at the blonde’s obvious excitement about his super hero persona. If only he knew he was literally talking to Mysterion himself, right then. “Oh yeah, him. He’s pretty cool. You seem to like him, with how excited you are ‘bout this?”

The boy’s cheeks seemed to flush a little pink at the observation, but he quickly nodded a few times. “Of course! He’s just so selfless and caring. He works so hard and he does so much good, and I think everyone should know just how much he does for this city! I’ve lived here since I was ten, and ever since he showed up a while ago, crime has already gone down. It’s amazing, really."

Kenny was starting to feel a little flustered himself now, but he refused to let it show. So, he only nodded in agreement. “It sounds like he does a lot of good. I haven’t lived here very long, I think he was already around when I got here.” That was definitely a lie, but the blonde didn’t have to know that. 

“Oh? You’re new? Oh! Do you go to the university?”

Kenny chuckled at that, shaking his head. “Nah. My roommates do, though. I’m just tagging along. I’m on my way to a job interview.”

“Oooh. I see.” The blonde nodded a few times in understanding, before putting a bright smile over his face. Kenny once again found himself thinking about just how cute he was. It was almost illegal. “Well, welcome to Denver! Where were you living before this?”

“South Park. It’s pretty small, you probably never even heard of it.”

“South Park!?” His excitement suddenly seemed to rise. Kenny gave a nervous chuckle, nodding.

“Uh, yeah. South Park. You’ve actually heard of it?”

“Of course I have! That’s where Mysterion first showed up! If you are from South Park, you knew that already, didn’t you??” 

Kenny swallowed a little, hoping this sudden revelation didn’t make his earlier lie all the more obvious. “Well-” he paused, trying to find words. “-Yes. No one talked much about him in South Park, though. People in that town are pretty self centered, I guess.” Well, at least that part wasn’t a lie. Although the people of South Park had been rather excited about Mysterion when Kenny first started his super hero work, they lost interest pretty quickly. It didn’t stop Kenny from continuing his work regardless, however. 

“I see.. I guess that’s why the only old articles I’ve been able to find on him were from a while ago.” The blonde’s excitement quickly died back down a little, but a bright smile quickly came back over his face again. “That’s so cool, though. I-” The blonde was cut off then as the screechy sound of the overhead speakers spoke of them approaching the next stop. He suddenly stood up a bit straighter now as the train began to come to a halt. “Oh! This is my stop. Well, it was nice talking to you, mister! Maybe I’ll see you around.” 

“Yeah. It was nice to meet you. Good luck with your work.”

His smile brightened a little more at that. “Thank you. Good luck with that interview! Bye bye!” He only gave a small wave after that, before promptly turning and heading out of the train. 

Kenny sighed a little, watching him go and thinking about the conversation they had on loop in his head. It made him feel good to know someone really cared about his Mysterion bullshit so much like that… and someone really cute at that. As the train doors closed and the car began to move again, that was when it dawned on him.

He should have asked for his number… and his name. Well, shit. 


	2. Small Meeting

A week had gone by since his job interview and Kenny was feeling like he had yet another curse put on him. Ever since he met that blonde on the train, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. It was like those blue eyes were burned right into his brain, haunting his very existence. Kenny never really cared to read the paper, but he found himself checking it every day now, scanning it for any sign of the Mysterion articles. To his surprise, they were actually usually on the front page. He never really took notice of just how much people cared to hear about his vigilante antics. Sure, people shared their gratitude when he helped them, but that was as far as he ever thought about it. 

Something else he had noticed while reading the articles, however, was what that boy’s name was. There were credits to the writer for every article in the paper, so of course the Mysterion ones were no different. Leopold Stotch. Even though it was obviously there on the public paper, Kenny almost felt like he was learning information he wasn’t supposed to know. He only talked to him for mere minutes, so why was he thinking so much about this? 

Mysterion shook his head a few times, as if in an attempt to shake the thoughts away. He needed to focus. It was already close to one in the morning, and once again the streets of Denver were suspiciously quiet. His nose was feeling a bit sore from a scuffle he got into with someone trying to break into an apartment a few hours prior. 

Useless police chatter continued to ring out into his ear from the wireless earbud pushed into it. He always tried to keep up with it in hopes of making his job of finding crime easier, but as of tonight it’s been almost nothing but endless, useless chit chat. Mysterion gave out a sigh and pushed himself up from his current crouched position. Maybe another run through the city would be good. Maybe he’d catch sight of something. 

Jumping and climbing from rooftop to rooftop with ease, he kept on the lookout over the streets and alleys for anything out of the ordinary. After a whole thirty minutes of moving, he finally stopped again to take a breath, crouching himself back down on the edge of the building he was atop of. He was starting to wonder if he should just call it quits for the night and get some actual rest for once. Nothing was stopping him from just sleeping past noon, but it would be nice if he didn’t have to. 

With one more glance around, he sighed again, ready to begin making his way back towards his apartment but sound from the earbud in his ear caught his attention. A much more serious tone of voice piped up from one of the officers, reporting that there were calls of a break in at a store that happened to only be a couple blocks away from him. Perfect. If we were lucky, he could deal with this and move on before the cops took their slow ass time getting there. 

Mysterion quickly pushed himself back to his feet, shoving the earbud into one of the pouches attached to his belt and made his way quickly towards the store mentioned. He had been expecting just some no good guys looking for a quick buck, but he was surprised when he saw the green cloth and shiny metal attire of someone he hadn’t seen for over a week at that point. Professor Chaos. 

Well, this should be fun. 

With years of experience, he made his way down to street level in silence, and only spoke up when he was a couple feet behind the villain. 

“Chaos!”

“BWAH!” The villain quickly jumped in surprise at the sudden voice, and flipped himself around in shock. Within seconds though, his demeanor relaxed and a smug smile came over his face as mischief gleamed in his single visible eye. His left eye was completely covered with an eye patch. “Mysterion!! I was wondering when you were going to show up!~ My, that was quite quick. I only just got here, you know! You must of been pretty excited to see me!~”

“Well, you aren’t exactly quiet about it. What the hell are you doing breaking into an antique shop?” Mysterion narrowed his eyes as he kept his body tense. Chaos had a tendency to attack without warning, and he was actually pretty strong, to his dismay. He couldn’t let himself be caught off guard. 

“Ahh, well just some extra cash wouldn’t hurt. Although, I was really hoping you’d show up!” Chaos grinned a bit wider, taking a few steps around Mysterion and away from the broken glass of the shop’s windows. “I haven’t seen you in a week now. Didn’t you miss me, darling?”

“Not at all.” Mysterion scoffed out the quick response, never letting his eyes move from the villain. “Sure, it’s been a little quiet without your annoying ass around, but the less crime the better.” 

Chaos gave him a pout at that, placing a hand over one of his cheeks with a tilt of his head. “Awww, that’s not very nice.” Chaos pressed his hands together in front of him now, perking back up with a grin. “Well, as excited as I am to see you, I did come here for a reason.” With that, Chaos flipped himself back around and began to step through the shattered front window of the shop. Mysterion was quickly on the move after that.

“I won’t let you do that, Chaos!” He should have been expecting it, but before he could even touch the villain he felt electricity painfully shoot through his body, sending him stunned back and onto the pavement. 

Chaos gave a sigh as he raised up the hand he had held out in Mysterion’s direction, electricity still lightly sparking from it. “You never learn, Mysti!~ I don’t plan on sticking around too long tonight, so I’d rather not spend too much time fighting. Besides, I’d rather be out of here before the cops show up, you know?” Chaos hummed a little as he sparked some more lightning from his fingertips and into the electric register, forcing it to pop open. 

Mysterion forced out a growl as he struggled to get feeling back into his muscles. By the time he finally got himself up to his feet however, Chaos had already emptied the register and was sending him another bright grin. 

“Well, as much fun as it is to play this hero game with you, I’ll have to be going!” Chaos made a move as if he was gonna turn and make a run for it, but he suddenly hesitated. Mysterion gave out a low growl and sent the villain a nasty glare as he made another move towards him. As if on queue, another zap of lightning shot through his body, stunning him yet again. “-And I’d rather you not follow me, by the way. Ta ta, darling!~” 

Mysterion groaned in pain as he fell down to his hands and knees. That stupid ability he had was annoying as fuck. He only ever seemed to use it like that when he wasn’t in the mood to fight, though. He wondered if he was even using his full power when he did that shit. Regardless, he could only watch as Chaos made a break for it through the back of the store and quickly out of sight. He already knew it was no use attempting to follow after him at this point, so he wasn’t in much of a rush to get up. 

Thankfully, he was starting to get some feeling back into his muscles again by the time sirens faintly reached his ears. Although he was technically only helping their jobs be easier, the police weren’t big fans of him. It would also suck for it to look like he was responsible for this. Although, being a vigilante was somewhat a crime within itself, he supposed. With another groan, Mysterion pushed himself back up to his feet. His knees were already stinging a little from the broken glass he had ended up falling onto. His gloves kept his hands from getting cut up, though, thankfully. At least knees were easy to hide.

The sirens continued to get louder, so he didn’t plan on wasting any more time, and quickly fled the scene and headed up one of the nearby buildings. He watched from the edge of the roof as the cop cars pulled in shortly after. It was a waste of their time, since they clearly weren’t going to find anything anyway. So, with a sigh, he finally began to make his way back towards the apartment. 

It was a little after two by the time he made it home, and his knees were already hurting more than they had before. All the jumping around seemed to only exacerbate the cuts. He felt like shit for not being able to stop Chaos, too. Tonight was just a shitty night, really. Not taking long to change out of his costume, he made his way to the bathroom right after. The apartment was dark and quiet, signalling that the other two were either asleep, or simply hiding away in their bedroom. Regardless, he wouldn’t have to deal with them tonight, hopefully. 

Kenny took a seat on the toilet lid and made sure to disinfect the cuts on his knees, and was glad to see they hurt a lot more than they looked. It wasn’t even that bad, really. He placed some bandages over them once he was finished, and carefully stood up with a stretch. His body was still aching from those stupid lightning attacks. He still wondered how he could even do that… it didn’t seem like he had a device or anything on his hands doing it. He only had metal gloves. 

Kenny pushed the curious thoughts out of his mind, focusing on just how exhausted he was instead. He headed straight for his bedroom now, and didn’t hesitate to fall into his bed after shutting his door behind him. He lazily pulled his covers over his head, not taking long to quickly fall asleep.

-

“..nny. Kenny! Dude!!” 

Kenny quickly stirred from his sleep with a slight start, groaning out groggily immediately after. He didn’t bother opening his eyes, having already picked up on who it was from the voice. “Mngh.. what the fuck. What?”

Stan huffed. “Dude, I texted you like twenty times! It’s literally like three in the afternoon, you know?”

Cracking his eyes open, Kenny gave his friend standing next to his bed a glance before shifting a hand around on his bed for his phone. When he pulled it up to his face and attempted to turn the screen on, it quickly became clear what happened. He groaned. “My phone’s dead. Sorry, man. I guess I forgot to plug it in last night.” Kenny reluctantly sat himself up, rubbing at his eyes as he tried to get the sleep out of them. “What the hell do you need?”

“I need your help. Real bad.” Stan suddenly sounded much more nervous, catching Kenny’s attention a bit more. “Look, so, uh, today is me and Kyle’s anniversary. I didn’t, like, forget, or anything! I just- uh. Well, I sorta forgot to get him anything. I’ve spent all day trying to think of something, but all my ideas are so lame.”

Kenny nodded in understanding now, letting out a sigh. “You need my help to think of something. Gotcha.” He pushed himself up out of bed now, already stepping over to his closet and shifting through it for a change of clothes. “How much time ‘til Ky’ is out of his classes today?”

“Uh, he said he has classes all day today. So, probably til like five?”

“Two hours, huh?” Kenny shook his head, but quickly sent his friend a grin after he pulled a shirt over his head. “That should be enough time. Come on, we’re going on a little trip.”

Stan didn’t bother arguing, and the pair quickly made their way out of the apartment. Thankfully for them, a lot of the stores in town were in close relation to the school. So, it was only a short few blocks before they found a couple stores to look through. 

Kenny pulled them inside the first one they came across, which seemed to be somewhat of a thrift shop. Stan raised a brow at him.

“A thrift shop? Dude, I wanna get him something _special._ ” 

Kenny hushed him quickly. “You’d be surprised what you can find in thrift shops. Come on, let’s just look around, ‘kay?” 

Stan still looked a little skeptical, but he shrugged and seemed to not want to argue any further. He _was_ the one who came to Kenny in the first place, after all. Kenny made his way along through the building with Stan being dragged along with him, keeping on the lookout for anything that might be good for Kyle. 

They weren’t having any luck finding anything worthwhile at first. Although Kenny did find a few funny shirts that were pretty easy to understand why people threw them out in the first place. Maybe he was almost a little tempted to buy some of them too. But, alas, he was much too broke to do that. 

By the time they already searched through half the store, Stan was speaking up again. “It’s no use, dude. There’s nothing worth it here. We should just go to another store.”

Kenny hushed him once again, sending him a smile. “Patience, dude. We still have more to look through. It’s been barely ten minutes, what’s the rush?” Stan sighed loudly at that, but again he seemed to give up trying to argue with his friend. 

They continued to search through the many shelves of junk, Kenny suggesting some things here and there but continuously being struck down by Stan. Kenny eventually sighs.

“No wonder you haven’t thought of anything, dude. It’s like nothing is good enough.”

Stan frowned at him. “Look, I just… want it to be good. It’s Kyle, man.”

“Yeah, I get it. Look, we’re almost done here and then we can move on.” Kenny went back to searching through the shelves. After a few more minutes he heard Stan suddenly speak up from the end of the aisle they were searching through.

“Holy shit! Is this for real?”

Kenny raised a brow, slowly making his way over to him and peering at the item currently in his friend’s hands. “What’s that?”

“An old playstation! Like what we used to play on together as kids? Remember how the one I had got smashed?”

Kenny couldn’t help but laugh a little at the mere thought of the memory. “Yeah. I’m surprised Cartman didn’t actually die that day. Kyle was _pissed._ ” Stan started to chuckle a little too. 

“It’s so cheap.. What the hell. I hope it isn’t, like, busted or something.”

“I’m pretty sure they test that kind of stuff before they sell it.” Kenny noted. “But hey, that’d be a pretty good idea to get. It’s a steal. Plus, I’m sure he’d be pretty excited.” Kenny waited for Stan to turn it down like he had everything else they found in this place, but he quickly nodded instead. Kenny couldn’t help but grin a bit wider in relief.

“Yeah, I think I’ll take this. Can we keep looking through some stores though? I wanna get him a few more things, I think.”

“S’fine with me, man.” Kenny nodded, comfortably shoving his hands into his pockets. 

-

A couple shops later, the two had managed a couple things that Stan thought Kyle would like. The Playstation, some flowers, and a new book Stan seemed to think Kyle would enjoy. Kenny figured Stan knew Kyle a lot better than him, so he didn’t comment on his choices. Really, it seemed like Stan could have picked this stuff out all on his own, but Kenny didn’t mind taking the little trip with him regardless.

It was nearing five, so they both decided to start heading back for the apartments in hopes of getting there before Kyle got back. 

To their luck, they found the apartment still empty when they got back to it. Stan took a breath once they got inside and he set everything down on the kitchen counter.

“Okay. I can do this.” 

Kenny sent his friend a sympathetic smile. He couldn’t blame him for being so nervous. Kenny had no doubt in his mind that Kyle would enjoy everything Stan got for him, but this kind of thing was pretty nerve wracking regardless. Kenny felt a little grateful he hadn’t dealt with a relationship in years. Too much responsibility… He raised a hand to place it over his friend’s shoulder, giving him a soft chuckle. “Don’t stress ‘bout it. Ky’ is gonna love all this.” 

Stan smiled in return before exhaling a breath and standing up a bit straighter. “Yeah. Thanks, Ken.” 

Kenny nodded and patted the shoulder a few times. He stepped away and towards the couch in the living room a few feet away, plopping himself down onto it. “You guys going anywhere tonight?”

Stan was busy making sure both the gifts he had were still neatly inside the gift bag he had bought for them when Kenny sent him the question. He didn’t bother looking up and only nodded with a hum. “Mhm. I was thinking of having us go out for dinner or something… We haven’t gone out in a while because he’s had his head so stuck in school. He needs a break.”

Kenny nodded. “You’re telling me. I don’t think I ever seen him relax since we moved in. Hopefully that Playstation will help him chill out a little bit too.”

“Maybe.” Stan suddenly laughed, glancing in Kenny’s direction now. “This is Kyle we are talking about though.”

“Yeah, I know.” Kenny chuckled a little himself, using a hand to fish through the cushions for the remote. He sighed in relief when he eventually found it and quickly turned the television on, beginning to mindless switch through the channels. “I hope you guys have a good time, though. When you two get back I would appreciate it if y’all don’t get too loud.” 

“Oh shut the fuck up.” Stan groaned, clearly knowing exactly what Kenny was implying with that.

_“-was broken into late last night. Law enforcement say they have no leads on who the culprit is, but the owner of the shop claims that nothing was stolen other than the money in the register.”_

Kenny quickly found himself focusing on the television after he switched to a news channel. On the screen was footage of the damage from Chaos’ little adventure last night, and he felt a bad feeling quickly fill his gut. He still felt like shit that he couldn’t stop him. 

“ _He has also said that he plans to hand over the surveillance footage over to the police. Officers say they plan on looking through footage from that night in hopes of catching who could have been responsible.”_

Oh, great. Kenny had to hold back from groaning at the information. He didn’t really care about his reputation as Mysterion. He didn’t usually, anyway. But all of sudden he wanted nothing more than no one to know about his failed attempt to stop the villain that night. 

“Oh yeah. There was that break in last night, huh?” Stan suddenly piped up, and Kenny almost jumped a little. He was suddenly standing in the living room with him, his attention seemingly also on the television now.

“Yeah. At least no one got hurt, though.” Kenny shrugged.

“That’s true.. Well, I gue-” Stan quickly cut himself off and suddenly tensed up when the sound of the front door unlocking reached both their ears. “Oh shit. He’s back-” Kenny watched as Stan scrambled back to the kitchen, hiding the gift bag on the ground behind the island and grabbing the flowers. Kenny sent Kyle a bright smile as he walked in, raising two fingers to his forehead in a salute.

“Sup, Ky’.”

“Hey.” Kyle shut the door behind him, and was quickly caught by surprise when Stan came in front of him with the flowers.

“Happy Anniversary, Kyle.” Stan was very obviously nervous, but he seemed to ease up a little when Kyle quickly had a smile over his face. Kenny felt his own set of relief wash over him too as he watched them from the couch.

Kyle took the flowers into his hands carefully. “Oh wow, thanks, Stan. Happy Anniversary.” A small kiss was pressed to Stan’s cheek, and Kenny heard him chuckle awkwardly. 

“Uh- Oh! Also…” Stan stepped away now, heading right back over to where he had hid the gift bag. Kyle stepped over with him, and soon enough Stan was holding out the bag to him. “I got you this. Oh, don’t, uh, open it yet though. I was thinking we should go out… like grab some dinner. Maybe you could open it while we are there?” 

Kyle’s smile brightened a little more as he took the bag into his hands. “That sounds great. I would love to do that, Stan. I have, uhm, something for you too.” Kyle set the gift bag down on the counter and flipped the bag on his back off and onto the counter as well. He zipped it open and dug around it for a short second before pulling out a wrapped box and holding it out to Stan. “I guess if I have to wait, you can’t open this yet either.”

Stan nodded. “Fair enough. Thanks, Ky'. Well, it’s already after five.. So let’s get ready to go?”

“Yeah. Let me get changed.” 

Kenny watched the pair make their way towards their bedroom, feeling pleasing everything was going smoothly for them already. When he finally turned his attention back to the television though, the smile over his face quickly fell. 

Last night worried him a lot. If Chaos was capable of stopping him so easily like that… why didn’t he, half the time? It was almost like he wanted him to stop him. It was… so odd. But, it also was a little concerning. What would he do if Chaos actually tried something worse than what he had last night. Would he even be able to actually stop him? 

Kenny sighed, raising the remote and forcing himself to switch the channel to something else. He didn’t want to think about all this right now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg I've already gotten support on this so fast ;; thank you guys so much <3 I'm glad you guys seem to be excited for this story too eeeee  
> Similar to when I worked on my last fic I'm aiming to post a chapter once a week if I can!! Excited for where this is gonna go <3


	3. New Job

“Hello? … Yep, this is Kenneth speakin’. … Wait, for real? Oh, wow, thank you so much! … I can start as soon as possible! … I’ll be there! Thank you, again.” 

Kenny hung up the phone, and was almost unable to contain the excitement he had bubbling through his veins. He quickly turned his attention back to his two friends who he had been previously chatting with before his phone had interrupted him. The three were all sat together at one of the tables that littered the cafeteria attached to the University. Kenny didn’t go to this school, but no one ever seemed to care about him loitering around anyway. 

“I got the job!”

Kyle suddenly gave out a heavy sigh of relief, and he tilted his head back a bit. “Oh, _thank_ god.” 

“That’s awesome, dude! It’s that convenience store job, right?” Stan spoke up through a mouthful of french fries. Kyle made some offhand comment about not talking with his mouth full, but the focus remained on Kenny. 

“Yeah! I start tomorrow. I gotta be there first thing in the morning.” Kenny’s excitement suddenly escaped him once that fact set in, and he groaned. “I gotta be there first thing in the morning.” He repeated himself, a little more defeated now.

Stan laughed as he pat Kenny’s back a few times. “You’ll get used to it. Maybe if you stopped staying up all night it wouldn’t be a problem?”

Kyle snickered. “You’re one to talk.”

Stan frowned, giving him a pout. “Hey! Come on... Kenny definitely stays up way later than I do. ...Most of the time, at least.”

“Mhm.” Kyle only hummed in response, before the attention was quickly on Kenny again. “Well, it’s great you finally got someone to bite, Ken. I’m sure it’ll be nice for you to not be bored at the apartment all day anyway.”

Kenny sighed a little, nodding. “Yeah, I guess so.” He slept most the day anyway, and was out all night as Mysterion, so he really wasn’t that bored. But, he couldn’t let them know that, so he simply chose to agree. “Work sucks no matter what. But, at least your guys’ parents will be off your asses.”

“Oh, _god_ , tell me about it.” Kyle groaned in relief. “My mom said she’ll help out as much as she needs to, but she’s gotten pretty passive aggressive about it lately.” 

“Sounds like her.” Kenny snorted, not feeling at all phased by the slight glare he got from Kyle in response. “Don’t worry, I’m sure within a week or two I’ll already have lots of money to start helping out. Sorry it took me so long.”

“Don’t sweat it, dude. You applied to a ton of places, so it’s not like you were just sitting around doing nothing.” Stan assured him, and Kenny sent his friend a large grin.

“Thanks. Finding work seemed so much easier in South Park than it is here..” 

Kyle nodded. “Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but people are much more desperate back home. It’s… so much bigger here.”

“You’re telling me.” Kenny sighed. He already knew all too well just how much bigger Denver was. Running around as Mysterion was much easier back in South Park. He could do an entire run through of the town nearly three whole times in a single night. But he could only get through a little under half of Denver in a single night unless he stayed out extra long to cover more ground. 

“Just be careful, ya know? With the robberies happening recently, just keep your guard up while you’re working. Would hate for something to happen to you.” Stan spoke up with concern, and Kenny couldn’t help but scoff and shake his head a few times.

“Don’t sweat it. I’ll be fine. You know most of the time there's never any injuries in those robberies.”

“Well, that may be true.” Kyle piped in after taking a bite from the sandwich in his hands. “But still, just be careful, dude. Especially if you end up getting late shifts.”

Kenny sighed, pushing himself up to his feet and sending the two a grin. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. I can promise you both I’ll be fine.” Even if anything did happen, Kenny fought crime every night and he was sure there’d be no problems. Besides, even if he did get killed, he knew full well he’d just come back like he always did. His friends didn’t know that, though, unfortunately. The best he could do was assure them as much as he could.

Kenny quickly decided to just change the subject. “Your class is gonna start soon isn’t it, Stan? Mind if I tag along again?”

Stan sighed as he briefly checked the time on his phone, nodding. “Yeah, I don’t see why not. Bro, one day they’re gonna find out that you don’t actually go to these classes, you know?” 

Kenny shrugged, watching as Stan began to push himself to his feet and gather his things back up into his bag. “They haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe they don’t even notice I’m there.” Kenny had tried a couple times to attempt and go with Kyle to his classes, but Kyle just about threatened to murder him for even trying. So, it was natural he decided to just always tag along to Stan’s instead. It’s not like he had much else better to do.

“I have no idea how they haven’t. It can’t really be that easy to get away with just sitting in a college class, you know, like, for _free._ ”

Kenny only shrugged again, and Stan let out a small laugh. 

“Alright, whatever. Let’s go.” Stan stepped over to Kyle, and briefly leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek with a smile. “I’ll see you later, Ky’.”

“Have fun you two- and Kenny, please don’t distract Stan too much.” Kyle pleaded to Kenny, but it sounded more like a demand rather than a request.

Kenny snickered with a wink as the pair turned to leave. “No promises.” He couldn’t help but laugh a bit harder when he earned an eye roll and sigh from Kyle as they walked away. He turned his attention back to Stan now, wrapping an arm over his shoulder. “What class you got this time?”

“Animal Biology.” Stan groaned out the answer as he attempted to shove Kenny’s arm away to no avail. “We are going over a bunch of diagrams or something today. It’s probably gonna be boring as fuck.”

Kenny snickered, a smug grin coming over his face. “Not with me there it won’t be.”

Thankfully the walk didn’t take too long and soon enough they made it to the classroom, which was already half full with students. Stan led them to one of the desks in the back, probably in some attempt to help Kenny continue to go unnoticed. 

It seemed they got there just in time, because within only minutes the teacher entered the room and got right to starting the lesson for that day. Kenny rested his head against the desk as he listened for a while. He was admittedly almost a little intrigued by what they were learning, but as soon as she got to the large words for the different parts of the animals he grew bored. He gave a glance towards Stan and raised a brow at how focused he seemed.

For someone who went out of his way to not do homework and shit, he got scarily invested when he was in class like this. It only made it even more fun to fuck with him, though. Kenny felt a grin come over his face and he had to hold back an amused snicker as he picked up a pen out of Stan’s bag. Stan only spared him a short glance before returning his focus right back to the lecture and the notes he was rapidly writing down. 

Kenny leaned himself over a little so he could reach a hand over and begin doodling on the same paper Stan was attempting to write notes on. He doodled a bunch of unsightly things like dicks and boobs on the corner of the page in an attempt to both entertain himself and distract Stan at the same time. 

“Dude.” Stan hissed out in a whisper, and Kenny once again had to hold back laughter. Kenny didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response and only continued to litter the paper with the dumb doodles until Stan shoved his hand away. “Quit it.”

Kenny pouted at him, letting out a dramatic sigh as he set the pen down and leaned himself onto the desk again. “I hate when it’s lectures. You get so boring.” He made sure to keep his voice at a whisper. Stan quickly rolled his eyes.

“You are the one who asked to come, dude.”

Kenny frowned, but knew he couldn’t really argue with that. He did ask to come. He couldn’t leave now without making his presence known, though. He was already starting to regret coming with him this time. 

Kenny left Stan be for a good five minutes at most before he felt the need to entertain himself once more. Kenny quietly shifted around through Stan’s bag again until he pulled out another notebook from it. Trying to make as little noise as possible, Kenny carefully tore out a few pages from it. Stan didn’t bear him any attention, but Kenny was already planning on making that change. 

With the same skill he got making these through all his years of schooling, he made a few small paper airplanes. He didn’t plan on throwing them around the room like he would in high school though. No, no, that’d cause too much attention. Instead, he scooted himself as far to the side of the long desk he and Stan were sharing and raised one of the planes up to his face to aim. With a swift flick of his wrist, he sent the plane shooting down low to the table and across Stan’s notes until it fell quietly to the ground on the other end.

Stan sent him a small glare, but it didn’t intimidate Kenny in the slightest. As soon as Stan turned back to his work, Kenny had another plane being sent across the table. Instead of going all the way across this time, however, it smacked into Stan’s hand. It must have also struck a nerve because Stan spoke up a little bit louder now with a hiss.

“Dude!”

“Mr. Marsh? Is there a problem?"

Kenny covered his mouth with his hands to hold in any possible laughter as he quickly leaned his head against the desk in an attempt to stay out of sight. 

Stan sat up a bit straighter with a shake of his head. “No sir. Sorry, I was- uh- daydreaming.”

Kenny raised a brow at the excuse he made up, and he almost started laughing again when he heard a confused hum from the professor.

“Please, pay attention.” 

Stan nodded, and with that the teacher continued on with the lesson as if nothing ever happened. Stan angrily shoved Kenny in the arm, and Kenny was still holding in his laughter with his hands.

“Dude, I swear I’m gonna stop letting you come with me.” Stan was back to a whisper.

Kenny uncovered his mouth now to sit back up. He quickly sent a smug grin, leaning closer to his friend. “You’d miss me too much, though.~”

Stan groaned, shoving Kenny away by pressing a hand to his face. Kenny only retaliated by licking his hand. Stan clearly almost loudly reacted, but covered his mouth with a free hand before anything came out. Kenny snorted, refraining himself from laughing out loud. 

The rest of the lesson went on like that, with Stan getting noticeably more annoyed as the hour went on. Maybe Kenny was kind of an asshole sometimes, but it was hilarious to watch. He didn’t find himself feeling too bad, since he knew Stan would probably do the same shit to him. 

Eventually, the class came to an end and Stan was freed from the endless torture of being sat next to a bored Kenny. Stan still had a few more classes for that day, but Kenny didn’t intend on coming along with any of them. In fact, he was sure Stan wouldn’t let him even if he tried. So, Kenny simply headed right back to the apartments. He figured he’d just sleep the day away, since he had to get up so early. He could go a night without being Mysterion, for once. 

-

Kenny wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or curse that he chose to sleep so early because he only ended up waking up at around two in the morning. Fully awake. 

Well, it seemed he might be doing some Mysterion work after all. It was a bit later than he liked to start stalking the city, but maybe it’d be good for him. A nice good morning workout before “real” work. 

Kenny was sure that Kyle and Stan assumed he was still asleep, if they were even still awake, so he tried his best to stay completely silent as he got changed into his costume. Used to the routine, in not too long Mysterion was standing at his window and carefully pulling it open. He decided to not waste anymore time, quickly pulling out his grappling hook to jump out and onto the building in front of him. 

Mysterion got his bearings and took a breath as he stood up and briefly glanced around to determine which direction he wanted to go in first. Once making a decision, Mysterion was quickly on the move over the rooftops. He kept his eyes on the streets and alleys below, looking for anything that seemed out of place. 

To his luck, it wasn’t long before a distance shattering of glass reached his ears. Mysterion quickly stopped, turning towards where he heard it come from. Carefully moving across rooftops, he soon enough caught sight of the building that had been broken into. A random dollar store. What was with all the robberies lately? 

Mysterion silently made his way down to street level and towards the dark building. He wasn’t sure who was in the shop, or even how many, so he kept his guard up. As he approached the building, he could make out two figures inside. Only two? This should be easy, then. 

As soon as his boot crunched some of the shattered glass, the two men inside turned to him. 

“Oh god, it’s Mysterion.” One of them hissed out in fear, backing up a few steps. “I thought there was no signs of him tonight??”

“Relax.” The other man growled out as he quickly pulled a gun from his belt. 

Mysterion kept his eyes on the gun now, taking a few cautious steps towards them. Sure, he couldn’t die. But he’d still rather not be shot. He quickly stopped moving as soon as the gun was pointed towards him. Mysterion let a growl rumble in his throat as he finally spoke up. 

“Robbing a humble little dollar store on a Wednesday night? What, had nothing better to do?” 

The man holding the gun returned a growl. He made a simple motion of his hand and the other man quickly went back to work digging through the broken register behind them. “Get out of here, hero boy. Unless you want a bullet in your skull.”

Mysterion couldn’t help but sigh a little, raising his hands from his belt and above his head in ‘surrender’ as he cautiously took a few more steps forward until he was right past the frame of the shattered window. The man with the gun tensed up , aiming the gun right for his head which forced Mysterion to stop moving after that.

“Don’t take a step closer, you freak.”

“Alright.” Mysterion grumbled, before shooting a glare towards the man in front of him. “I won’t take a step, then.” With that, he flicked one of his wrists, successfully slamming one of his smoke bombs against the floor. As soon as the smoke filled the room he was on the move. As Mysterion had expected, the man quickly began to start firing the gun blindly in front of him, so he felt glad he moved out of the way at the last second. Making his way through the smoke he found his way behind the trigger happy thief, he quickly grabbed the wrist holding the gun and bent it back so he would let go of the weapon. Once the gun clattered to the floor, he kicked it away. 

Mysterion swiftly ducked to dodge the punch sent his way from the man’s free arm. He let go of him only so he could send his own punch, successfully hitting the man in the chin and then kicking him to the ground.

“Oh shit!!” The other man cried out in fear, and it only backfired as it helped Mysterion quickly find him through the fading smoke. He grabbed him by the back of the shirt and easily yanked him from the register and threw him to the floor with the other one. 

“Are you working for someone? What’s with all the robberies?” Mysterion spoke up, placing a hand over the holster holding his gun in his belt. 

The larger man scoffed. “What do you think this is? An interrogation room? I ain’t telling you shit, batman.” 

Mysterion sighed in irritation, but wasn’t surprised by the answer. He quickly decided against actively trying to get anything out of them. Faint sirens were already being heard from the distance, and it quickly spurred the two thieves to try and scramble to their feet. Mysterion quickly kicked them both to the ground the minute they tried it, standing himself in the way of their exit. 

“Don’t move.” 

“I’ll kick your ass, you stupid mother f-” Mysterion quickly cut him off by finally pulling his gun from his belt and aiming it at him when he had made a move to attack him again. The sirens were getting louder.

“I said don’t move.”

He couldn’t stick around much longer. Once the lights of the cars started to shine from the end of the street, Mysterion shoved his gun back into his holster. He swiftly made his way back up to the rooftops just in time for the police cars to get there and crowd around the front of the store. 

Mysterion laid down on the top of the nearby roof, using a moment to catch his breath after the abrupt run for it. Once getting his bearings, he sat himself up and peered over the edge of the roof. He sighed with relief when he saw the two already in cuffs. He gasped and quickly ducked when he noticed one of the cops looking up his way, though. He needed to get going.

-

The rest of his night out was relatively calm, and nothing notable really happened. Mysterion finally made his way back home when it was nearing time for his first shift to start. Besides, that meant the sun would be out soon as well. 

Quietly slipping into his room through the window, Kenny pulled the hood off and gave a glance to his bedside clock. 6am. He had an hour before work. Quickly pulling the rest of the costume off and stuffing it away, he pulled on some pjs and grabbed his clothes for work before scrambling his way to the bathroom. 

A quick shower later he came back out all dressed and no longer smelly from his ‘workout’. He pulled on his parka and shoved his only half-charged phone into his pocket as he made his way for the front door. Stan was on the couch, clearly doing more last minute work. Kyle had to already be at the school by now.

“Hey Ken. I was starting to wonder if I should wake you up.”

Kenny chuckled a little nervously as he grabbed the knob to the front door. “Don’t worry about it. I can wake myself up just fine. I just got a little sidetracked when I woke up.” Stan opened his mouth to say something, but Kenny cut him off as he swung the door open. “I need to catch the train. I’m gonna be late. See ya, dude!”

“Ken-”

Kenny shut the door behind him and quickly headed towards the stairs, finding it’d probably be faster than having to wait on the elevator. By the time he got to the bottom he was somewhat regretting it. He was already feeling sore from all the rooftop hopping he just got done doing, and he already could tell work was going to suck. Why couldn’t cashiers sit, anyway? Dumb. 

Kenny pulled out some headphones from the opposite pocket to his phone, and briefly felt glad they were still there. He pulled out his phone after plugging the buds into his ears and shoved the plug into the headphone jack. 

When he got to the train station he couldn’t help from looking around for any sight of Leopold. It was around this time they met last time, but he didn’t catch any sight of him. Kenny let out a sigh as he stepped onto the crowded train, deciding to just focus on the music in his ears instead. He wasn’t sure how much he was looking forward to this routine. 

Thankfully the train ride doesn’t take long at all, and within five minutes he's already at his stop. He shoved his headphones away ahead of time after getting off the train. A short walk down the block and he got to the convenience store he was sure he’d know inside and out within only a week. Kenny has worked at a convenience store before. A couple of them, actually. So he knew full well how this job was probably going to go. At least the first few days was just the stupid training program on the computer. The manager allowed him to help with the counter whenever she was busy, though. 

Needless to say, Kenny was kept pretty busy the entire shift, and it helped it go by generally pretty fast. Everyone had been relatively nice as well. He was wondering if it was just because he was new. Halfway through the shift, someone came by to drop off the new paper for the day, and Kenny couldn’t help himself from grabbing a copy for himself. He grinded his teeth a little as he read over the large print title on the front of the page. 

**_MYSTERION FAILS TO STOP ROBBERY?_ **

Kenny glanced to the credit before he even read through the article, and was not surprised to see the name he already read numerous times now. Leopold Stotch. For some reason, he felt a bit guilty. It almost felt like he let someone down. He didn’t like the feeling. 

Against his better judgement, he began to skim through the article. 

**_...an unheard of villain that Mysterion referred to as ‘Chaos’ in some of the surveillance footage, has successfully got away with cash from a…_ **

**_...Is there a connection between this ‘Chaos’ and all the recent robberies?..._ **

**_...Mysterion was easily subdued by this new criminal, which begs the question if we are actually safe…_ **

Kenny scrunched up his nose as he looked through it, already making a mental note of not letting Chaos get the upper hand like that in the future. He couldn’t afford to be sloppy like this. He sighed, folding the paper and putting it away. He tried to get his mind off of all that and focused back on his work instead. 

When 2pm eventually came around, Kenny stood up from the computer behind the counter at the sound of the front door bell.

“Hello, welcome to- Oh, why, _hello.~”_ Kenny cut himself short with a chuckle as he dramatically leaned forward on the counter towards the two ‘customers’. 

Stan laughed a little, stopping with Kyle at the counter. “We wanted to see how it’s going. Figured we could grab some snacks while we’re here.”

Kenny shrugged, keeping a bright grin on his face. “It’s been fine. I’m a bit restless, but I’ve been kept busy.” 

Kyle said something to Stan and he was off to stalk around the store for snacks, leaving Kyle and Kenny alone at the counter.

“Do you know your schedule for the week?”

Kenny nodded, sitting himself back at the computer again so he could work on his training. “I’m here for training the next two days, then I’m off for the weekend.” Kyle smiled once given the information, and it got Kenny glancing in his friend’s direction. “What are you grinning about?”

“Well, me and Stan were wanting us to all go out on Saturday. To the bar or something? Stan has been going on and on about me needing to relax, so I figured it’d be fun. Besides, we can also celebrate you finally getting a job.” 

Kenny couldn’t stop the large grin that came over his face. “Oh fuck yeah. That sounds awesome. We totally should.” 

“Well, let’s do it. I’m sure it’ll be super fun. Maybe you’ll even find someone to hook up with finally.~” Kyle raised a brow at him, and Kenny laughed with a shake of his head.

“What? Nah. I guess we’ll see, though. I’m definitely not _opposed_ to the idea.” Kenny snickered, turning from the computer to face his friend again. 

“Incoming!” Stan’s voice spoke up next to them just as an avalanche of chips, cookies, candy and soda was dropped onto the counter. “Phew.”

“Holy shit, dude. Stan, when I said get snacks I didn’t mean enough for an entire house party.” Kyle sighed. 

Kenny couldn’t help but snort, already pushing himself back to his feet. “Ky’, you know this shit won’t survive even a week.” He quickly got to work scanning everything and bagging it all up. “Alright, _your total will be 24.89.~”_ Kenny pulled on an exaggerated customer service voice with a grin as he held his hand out.

Stan gave a brief glance to Kyle, who promptly rolled his eyes and pulled his wallet from his pocket. He shoved a $20 and a $10 into his hand which Kenny gladly took and shoved into the register. He handed the change over to Kyle and shoved the receipt into one of the bags.

“ _Is that all you’ll be needing today?~”_ Kenny continued on with the voice, and Stan chuckled a little.

“Yes, _sir._ Thank you.” Stan picked up the bags and took a few steps towards the exit. “Well, we’ll leave you to it. Have fun, dude.”

“See ya, Ken.” 

Kenny waved a goodbye as he watched them leave. He was already ready to get this whole week over with. It’d been way too long since the three of them hung out like that, and it got Kenny eager for Saturday to come sooner. Hopefully work would make the time go by faster than usual. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long! The holidays had me so busy rip  
> thank u guys so much for all the kudos and comments already! ;w; <3 it means soo much to me  
> im so excited to continue working on this fic omgg


	4. Night Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope 2021 is better than whatever 2020 has been ):

“Kenny? Are you ready to go yet??” Kyle’s voice spoke up paired with the light knocking he was giving the bathroom door. 

Kenny quickly reached over and opened up the door despite clearly still in the middle of fixing his hair. He pulled a grin over his face as he turned back to the mirror again and began to run the comb through his hair a few more times. “Yeah, just about. Just one more sec and I’ll be out.”

Kyle sighed with a nod, but reluctantly turned for the front door. “Alright, just hurry up. You’re holding up the Uber, you know.”

“Okay mom.” Kenny snorted, shutting the bathroom door again and taking another glance up at the mirror. He gave his hair a few more combs before deciding it looked the right amount of messy. An excited grin came over his face as he exited the bathroom and headed into his bedroom briefly. Once he had his phone and wallet securely in his pockets, Kenny grabbed his keys and finally headed out of the apartment. 

He made sure to lock the door behind him before rushing for the elevator and making his way down to the first floor. It was almost September, and the nights were already getting noticeably more chilly by the day. 

Kenny pulled his parka tighter around him as he pushed into the cold air and towards the street where the Uber that Kyle had mentioned was patiently waiting for him. As he stepped up to the vehicle the back door was swung open for him and he quickly grinned when he was met sight with Stan first.  
  
“Sorry for the wait.” Kenny plopped himself inside next to him while simultaneously pulling the car door closed with him. “Oh!! Candy.~” Kenny hummed in excitement when he immediately spotted the bowl of free candy in the middle of the back seat, not hesitating to dig in and pull a lollipop out of it for himself. 

The drive to the bar was thankfully not far at all. The place they were going to was just a few blocks away from their apartment. Within not even a couple minutes they were pulling up to the building and bidding adieu to their kind Uber driver. 

Kenny shifted the lollipop in his mouth as he glanced up at the brightly lit sign in front of the bar. It was more like a club rather than just a bar, though. They’d already come here a few times since they moved into Denver, and it was already feeling so familiar to him. 

As the three walked up towards the entrance, Kenny already got to work pulling out his _very_ authentic ID from his wallet. Once they all were checked and let inside, the intense smells of alcohol and traces of weed immediately filled his nose. He could already feel the thumps of vibration through his feet from the music blaring into his ears and Stan was already dragging Kyle along towards the bar. Kenny wordlessly shoved his hands into his pockets and followed them. 

Within minutes Stan had already downed at _least_ three shots, from what Kenny could tell. Kyle had a single rum and coke. Kenny decided to not order anything just yet and simply took a seat at the bar with them. 

“You gonna dance, Ken??” Kenny eventually heard Stan’s voice loudly in his ear, forcing him to look up from his phone and at his friend. Kenny couldn’t help but grin when he noticed how tipsy Stan seemed to be already. 

Regardless, Kenny shook his head. “Dunno. Maybe later when I’m drunk as fuck. Are you and Ky’ gonna go dance?”

“Yeah!!” Stan nodded a few times. “Well, we’ll find you later!” 

Kenny only nodded, watching as Kyle laughed and began to lead the pair towards the bright lights and loud music of the dancefloor. There was no more seeing them tonight, Kenny knew full well. It always seemed to go this way when they came here, not that it bothered Kenny. An excuse to go to a bar like this was plenty enough for him anyway. 

After spending a good amount of time scrolling through his phone, Kenny finally waved the bartender down and ordered himself a random cocktail off of the menu. He briefly glanced around the somewhat busy bar and before long his drink was made and placed down in front of him.

Kenny happily thanked the bartender for the beverage and didn’t hesitate to begin taking sips from it once he got it in his hands. He got right back to mindlessly scrolling through his phone as he sipped away at the beverage until he felt a sudden tap at his shoulder a few minutes later. He raised a brow as he twisted his body around towards where it came from, wondering if he was either about to be hit on, or was about to be asked to fight by some drunk asshole. He was surprised by who exactly he saw standing there next to him though. So much so, he almost choked on his drink. 

“Hiya, mister! It’s so cool to see you here! Do you mind if I sit with you?” It was that blonde he met on the train. Leopold. Kenny decided quickly he wouldn’t make it known that he already knew his name, however. 

Kenny quickly swallowed the mouthful of alcohol still in his mouth, having successfully kept himself from choking on it. He nodded a few times, trying to stomach his nerves. “Of course, take a seat. It’s good to see you again.” He set his glass down as the blonde sat next to him. Kenny quickly attempted to start some small talk before things got too awkward. “I never caught your name, by the way. Everyone calls me Kenny.”

“Oh! You can call me Butters.” Kenny blinked a little at that, not having really expected the answer. He knew his name was Leopold, so he felt his curiosity get the better of him. 

“Butters?”

The blonde seemed a little embarrassed when Kenny asked for clarification, and it almost made Kenny feel bad for asking. “Yeah. It’s a nickname. My parents always called me that, so it just kinda stuck. Most people I know call me that, is all.” He tried to shrug it off. 

Kenny gave a small nod of understanding. “Gotcha. Well, don’t worry. I think that’s a pretty cute name.”

“You think so?” Butters laughed a little at the compliment. “Thanks, Kenny.” 

Kenny swallowed a little as the name came out of his mouth. He wasn’t sure why the simple sound made him feel so funny, but it sure did. He took another sip of his drink as if in an attempt to swallow down his nerves, before turning to Butters again. 

“Do you want me to buy you a drink?”

“Huh?” Butters seemed a little surprised at the offer, but he shook his head after a second. “Oh, no no, you don’t need to do that. I’m really not much of a drinker.”

“Oh yeah? What are you doing at a bar on a Saturday night then?” Kenny raised a brow with a grin, a bit skeptical at the explanation. 

“Well-” Butters hesitated, probably trying to think of a better explanation. He eventually sighed with a little laugh though, nodding. “Okay, you got me. Yeah, I did come here to drink. You don’t gotta go buying me anything though, really.” 

“Hey, don’t sweat it. One drink won’t hurt. What’cha like to drink?” 

“Uhm.. a rum and coke would be fine for me.” 

“A good choice. I like your taste.” Kenny chuckled and waved the bartender down. It didn’t take long for the drink to be made and set down in front of Butters. Kenny was nearly done with the first drink he had got, so he had asked for one for himself as well. 

“Thank you, Kenny.” Butters gave him a bright smile as he took the cup into his hands. Kenny found himself a little distracted for a moment then. Something about his smile was so bright, and it made his heart feel really funny. 

“It’s no problem.” Kenny took a sip from his drink. “Did you come here by yourself?”

Butters gave him a nod, but only spoke up after taking a quick sip from his own glass. “Yeah. I just wanted to unwind a little bit. Work’s been real stressful lately.” 

“Oh, gotcha. I don’t blame ya. Sometimes a couple drinks really is the only thing to help you really unwind.” Kenny let out a small chuckle, leaning himself against the counter. “I came with those roommates I mentioned before. But they are off doing god knows what, so right now it’s just me, I guess.” He shrugged.

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“What?” Kenny blinked at the question, unable to help but tilt his head curiously. “What you mean?”

“Oh, well. I just, I don’t know, I guess if I came with friends and then ended up alone it’d bother me a little.” 

Kenny hummed a bit at the confession, shaking his head a little. He briefly took another drink from his coke. “Nah, it doesn’t bother me. We live together, so really, I see them more often than I probably need to anyway, ya know?” 

Butters giggled a little at that. “I guess that makes sense. Oh!” Butters sat up a little straighter now. “How did that interview go by the way?”

Kenny let a wide grin come over his face now, and he felt a bit of his pride get the better of him. “Oh, It went perfect. I started working a couple days ago.” 

Butters seemed to light up at that, and Kenny almost felt a little embarrassed at just how excited the blonde seemed to be for him. They still barely knew each other, after all. Then again, Kenny would never admit how much he had thought about Butters since they met despite that. 

“That’s great!! I’m so happy for you, Kenny! I hope it goes well for you.” 

“Thanks, Butters. What about your job? You look just as old as me and my pals do, if not younger.. Why you not in school or something?” Kenny yet again felt his curiosity get the better of him. He felt like he wanted to learn as much as possible about this boy. He wanted to know everything. 

“Oh, well, yeah! I’m nineteen. But, uh, I graduated super early. I got through high school in two years, and college in a little under three. I got my job for the paper after a short internship!” 

Kenny couldn’t help but stare at him in awe. Holy shit? “Damn. What the fuck?” Kenny laughed now, almost a little overwhelmed at the new information. “That’s fucking crazy. And I thought my friend Kyle was a freak when it came to school.”

Butters’ cheeks flushed a little now. Whether it was from embarrassment or the drink in his hand, Kenny wasn’t entirely sure.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“What? No, no of course it isn’t.” Kenny shook his head. “Sorry about the freak thing- It’s really cool, actually. Super cool. I barely survived high school, honestly.” He took one last sip from his glass before the drink was already empty, and he sent the blonde a wide grin after he was sure the bartender wouldn’t hear them. “Nineteen, eh? You know, usually you can’t get in here when you’re that young.”

“Ah- oh, well, I t-turn twenty next month, uh- and- I-” Butters suddenly seemed nervous, and Kenny tried to help him relax by letting out a laugh and patting his shoulder. 

“Hey, it’s cool. My pal Stan is nineteen too and he drinks more than all of us combined. Me and Ky’ turned twenty months ago.” Kenny shrugged, moving his hand back onto the counter. “I take it you got a fake ID too? Everyone ‘round here seems to. It’s probably why they don’t even bother checking half the time anymore. You just don’t seem like the type for that kinda thing though?”

Butters smiled, but still seemed a little nervous. “Well, uh, yeah. I do have one. I don’t come here very often, but I figured it was good to have.” Kenny noticed that he kept occasionally rubbing his fists together in front of him, and it was quickly clear it must be something he did when he was nervous. It was kinda cute. “D-Don’t go tattling on me or anything, though.”

“What?” Kenny laughed. “Dude, seriously it’s okay. I ain’t snitching. What you so freaked out for?”

“Ah, I’m sorry.” Butters frowned. “I just worry a whole lot about getting in trouble. If my parents ever found out I got caught with a fake ID, well, I’m sure I’d be good as dead.” He was still doing that thing with his hands. Kenny hadn’t meant to make him so nervous.

“You still live with your parents?” Kenny attempted to just move the conversation along in hopes of removing some of his nerves. 

Butters shook his head. “No, I have an apartment on my own. But, they still check on me a lot. Uh-” The hands again. Kenny found himself already noting that he also always seemed to look down when he was nervous too. “Sorry, do you want the rest of this?”

Kenny blinked at the sudden question, and noticed Butters now pointing at the half empty glass of rum and coke in front of him. 

“I don't think I want it anymore. I can pay you back if you want, I-”

Kenny shook his head to cut Butters off, keeping a warm smile over his face as he took the glass from him. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing wrong with changing your mind.” 

That bright smile came over Butters’ face again. It felt so genuine and.. warm. Kenny quickly decided he wanted to see that smile as much as possible. Kenny swiftly downed the rest of the rum and coke and lightly slammed the glass down when he was done. He gave Butters another big smile. 

“All gone!~ Nothing was wasted, so don’t worry about paying me back, ‘kay?” 

Butters let out a small laugh. “Alrighty, then. I won’t worry about it. Can I at least drive you home?”

“Well,-” Kenny hesitated, glancing towards the dancefloor for any sign of his friends. He couldn’t find any sight of them in the large crowd of people, but he had a feeling they were still somewhere around here. They probably won’t even notice he’s gone.

Kenny smiled a bit brighter now, turning towards Butters again. “That sounds great, actually. It’s cold as fuck outside. Thanks, Butters.” He paused, waving down the bartender again as he continued, “Hey, you mentioned you’ve lived here a long time, right?"

Butters nodded. “Yep! Since I was ten. Why?”

Kenny flushed a little, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. He didn’t answer right away, first ordering himself two shots of vodka. He sucked up every ounce of confidence inside him to overcome the nerves. “I was wondering if there’s anything worth seeing around here. I figure you’d know better than me and you’re real fun to talk to, so, uh, could I have your number?”

Deep down, Kenny wasn’t really expecting a rejection. Butters had been the one to come sit with him in the first place, so clearly he liked talking to him too, right? Kenny couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous regardless, but was quickly filled with relief when Butters smiled brightly at him. The blonde was already fumbling his phone out of his pocket just as the two shots Kenny ordered were placed down in front of him.

“Well, sure, Kenny! Here, you can put your number in here.” 

Kenny was busy already quickly downing one of the shots when Butters held out his phone to him. Quickly setting the empty shot glass down, Kenny took the phone and typed in his number into the contact screen. After double checking he typed it in correctly, he quickly handed it back over with one hand while already grabbing his own phone with the other. Soon enough Butters had his own number put into Kenny’s phone, and he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Kenny shoved his phone into his pocket while simultaneously downing his last shot. He pushed himself to his feet as he slammed the glass down and immediately gave Butters a warm grin. “Wanna get out of here?”

“Oh?” Butters still had that smile on his face. “What about your friends? Aren’t they coming?”

Kenny hummed as if in thought, although he already had his mind made up. He eventually shook his head, pushing his hands into his pockets. “They’ll be fine. They’ll get an Uber.” 

Carefully getting to his feet now too, Butters smiled a bit brighter with a nod. “Well, Okay! Come on, my car is right outside.” 

Kenny couldn’t lie and say he didn’t feel a little buzzed now after all those drinks. He was always pretty good at handling himself though, and found no problems in trying to walk regardless. It was only a brief walk to get to Butters’ car, and the moment he could, Kenny opened up the passenger’s door and plopped himself inside. 

It was immediately apparent that this car was brand new. That, or he simply took insane care in it. It still had that new car smell, and it was spotless inside. 

“I’m afraid I can’t stay out too late. I have work to do tonight…” Butters mumbled the confession out a bit reluctantly as he got the car started up. 

Kenny raised a brow as he buckled himself in. He let a smile come back over his face. “Ah, late night journalism?”

“Mmm… you could say that, I guess!” Butters giggled. “So much has been going on lately and Mysterion has been so involved with a lot of it… There’s lots to find and write, you know?” Kenny silently nodded in agreement with a glance out his window while the car rumbled to life. 

As the car began to move, Kenny kept finding himself glancing in the blonde’s direction. It was dark, so he only really had the lights from the street lamps to see. But it was enough. He couldn’t help himself. Butters really _was_ super cute. 

“Do you wanna grab something to eat before you go home? I can have us stop at McDonalds or something!~” Butters happily offered, pulling Kenny out of his trance and back into reality. 

“Oh, you know.. That sounds so fucking good right now.” Kenny chuckled, relaxing into the soft seat. Butters was laughing again.

“Okay, McDonalds it is then.”

-

A brief trip and drive thru line later, Butters was parking them in the parking lot so they could eat. Butters made a comment about being extra careful to not drop anything or make a mess. While they were dividing up each other’s food, Kenny decided to continue the small talk.

“Okay, the curiosity has been eating at me.” he started, chuckling a bit as he set his wrapped burger and fries onto his lap. “You said you’ve lived here since you were ten? Where were you living before that?”

Butters hummed excitedly while midway through chewing on a chicken nugget. He sat up a bit straighter, giving Kenny a bright smile. “I was born in Hawaii! We didn’t move here until I was ten. Dad always said something about being sick of the heat.” 

“Hawaii, huh?” Kenny chuckled as he took a quick bite out of his burger. “You’re just full of surprises. “

“What about you?” Butters tilted his head. “Have you only lived in South Park before this?”

“Yep.” Kenny sighed. “Unfortunately. Been stuck there since I was born. It’s been nice to finally get out of there for a while. I miss my sister lots though.”

“You have a sister?” 

Kenny nodded, a warmer smile quickly coming over his face. “Yeah. I have a brother too. He moved out way before me, though. My sister is still in high school right now.”

“Well, at least South Park isn’t too far from here. I’ve wanted to visit it myself but I haven’t found the time.” Butters hummed, biting into another nugget. 

Kenny scoffed, shaking his head a few times. “It really ain’t much to see. It's not like they got Mysterion statues up or anything.” Butters was quickly laughing and it got Kenny chuckling a bit as well.

“No, I have other reasons to wanna see South Park. Maybe one day I will get to.”

It didn’t take much longer after that for Butters to finish up his food, with Kenny already nearly done as well. Butters was starting the car back up now.

“Where do you live, by the way?”

“Oh.” Kenny sat up a bit straighter, pulling up the maps app on his phone. “I can pull up a GPS.”

“Oh, I don’t need that.” Butters laughed. “You can just tell me what apartment building you live in.”

Kenny blinked at that, slowly putting his phone away again. “Gotcha. Okay, well, I live in the apartment building just off of 11th. The name is escaping me.”

“Near the university?”

“Yep. Walking distance of it.”

“Ahhh. Okay!~” Butters started the car up again, already pulling them out of the parking lot and back onto the streets. 

“You know Denver pretty well, huh?” 

Butters let out a soft chuckle, “I just travel so much for work. I know this place so much better than I did even a year ago.” 

“Well, I guess I’m glad you were the one I ran into. I would still love for you to show me what there is to do around here.” They were already halfway to the apartment building, and Kenny found himself wishing this car ride would last longer.

“Well, I’d love to do that, Kenny! Work keeps me pretty busy, but if I’m ever free I’d love to show you a few things. You’re always free to text me, though!”

“I’m sure I will. I’ve had a nice time tonight, even if it wasn’t that long.” Kenny grinned. “We should definitely do something again sometime.”

Sooner than he wanted, the car slowed to a stop outside the large apartment building. Kenny’s feet suddenly seemed a hundred pounds heavier, but he reluctantly opened up the door and stepped out. He leaned down to peek back into the car, unable to help but smile a bit brighter when he was met with Butters own giant smile.

“I’ll text you, for sure. You’re cool, Butters.”

“Aw. You’re cool too, Kenny!~ I’ll see you later, then?”

“Yep. Talk to you later. Drive home safe, kay? Good luck with work.” Kenny stepped back, placing a hand on top of the door frame. 

Butters nodded, giving a small wave. “Goodnight, Kenny!”

“Night.” With that, Kenny swung the door shut. He gave a small wave in return as he watched the car drive off. Within seconds, it suddenly became more apparent to him just how cold it still was outside. He shivered as he quickly turned and headed for the safety of the warm apartment building. 

Okay, maybe Kyle was right about meeting someone at the bar. This was pretty exciting. Kenny was starting to really like Denver. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter quick bc i had some of this one already written <3  
> im so so excited abt this story and im excited to finally have butters and kenny interacting fr this time <3 its fun time now  
> next chapter probably gonna be a lil long oooo


	5. Bite To Eat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait for this one! Had a bit of writers block and this chapter is a bit long! :0 Enjoy!~

“ _Kenny_.” Kyle’s exasperated voice loudly finally spurred Kenny out of the trance he was under and he forced himself to pull his head up and out of the phone in his hands. Kyle was staring at him from a few feet down the aisle with his back to the shopping cart he had been pushing. 

“Oh.” Kenny quietly caught back up to stand beside the cart, although he already was letting his eyes dig back down onto his phone screen. “Sorry, Ky.”

Kyle was laughing a little now as he got them moving again down the store’s aisle. “You’ve been focused on your phone all day. Who are you busy texting over there, anyway? You don’t even text Karen like that.”

Kenny just shrugged. “Just that friend I made last week. They’re real nice to talk to.”

It was grocery day, and Kenny had agreed to come with Kyle to help. Before they had left, Stan had said something about wanting to come too, but Kyle shot him down almost immediately. Apparently, he had yet again let an assignment sit for too long, and Kyle had demanded Stan not go anywhere till he finished it. Stan, for his own sake, had reluctantly agreed. 

Kenny wasn’t really much help with the shopping though. He couldn’t help but be distracted. Ever since him and Butters had exchanged numbers they were texting almost any chance they had. It was sorta weird just how natural it felt to talk to him. It was like they’d known each other for years, despite having only met a few weeks ago. Not to mention, they only actually started _talking_ barely a week ago now. 

Already he had learned so much more about Butters, and every little thing he learned just made him want to know more and more. He learned that Butters had an apartment not too far from his own apartment building. He learned that Butters really liked movies. He learned that Butters really liked art and would draw in his free time. There was still so much more he needed to learn.

“Oooh. Okay.” Kyle stopped the cart so he could scan his eyes over the shelf to his right. “I can’t say I remember you ever texting someone you disappear at a bar with like that. You must really like him?” Kyle’s question seemed a bit accusatory.

Kenny looked up at his friend again, giving him a slightly dirty look despite the fact the red head wasn’t even looking at him. “I met him before we met at the bar. This is different.”

“Mhmm.” Kyle nodded with a hum as he reached and grabbed the specific jar of peanut butter he was looking for. The spreadable snack was tossed into the cart, and Kyle got them moving again. “Well, when do we get to meet this super cool friend of yours? I can’t lie and say I’m not a bit curious.”

“Oh, uh.” Kenny was looking at his phone again. He was finding it a little hard to focus on two separate conversations at the same time. “I dunno.” He could only get out the short reply, already too focused on typing out a response to the person he was texting instead. 

_lol i dont even have a number for how many times i used to skip class_

**_Butters:_ ** _Oh gosh! I could never. I would have been skinned alive! D:_

_trust me, i got skinned alive a few times_

_lmao_

**_Butters:_ ** _Maybe if we had gone to the same school you might’ve got me to skip with you!_

_That’s a very hard maybe though. >:( _

_idk i like to think im pretty persuasive ;)_

**_Butters is typing…_ **

“Kennyyy.” Kyle’s voice snapped him out of his trance yet again in a sing-song tone. Kenny had been managing to make sure he was staying with the cart, so Kenny immediately assumed Kyle had been trying to talk to him.

“Sorry. What?” Kenny shoved his phone into his pocket for now, deciding he could get back to it in a few minutes for Kyle’s sake. He felt it vibrate against his leg shortly after, but he chose to ignore it for now. 

Kyle sighs. “Can you pick out what cereal you want. You always seem to want something different every time we go shopping.” As Kenny wordlessly scanned over the large selection of cereals, Kyle continued. “I thought you came with me to help. Not just text on your phone the whole time?” 

Kenny really didn’t feel like being nagged any further, so he quickly decided to just wait til they got done shopping to check his phone again. Even though already he felt it vibrate a few more times, and he wanted nothing more than to continue the conservation he had been having. As Kenny grabbed himself a box of Lucky Charms and tossed it into the cart, he spoke up a little defensively. 

“My bad. You got the full attention of both my ears and eyeballs.” Kenny grinned, pointing to his ears and eyes as he said so. He began tugging on the cart from the side to get them moving again. “The cart’s already pretty full. Aren’t we nearly done, anyway?”

Kyle rolled his eyes, but he was smiling again now. “Yeah, I guess so. There’s only a few more things we need to grab. If you wanna hurry out of here faster, maybe you could run down and grab some milk? I’m gonna head for the frozen section.”

“Gotcha. Be right back.” Kenny gave a playful salute with two of his fingers as he flipped himself around and headed back down the aisle. Once he turned the corner and was out of sight, he couldn’t help himself from pulling his phone back out of his pocket as he headed towards the end of the store. 

**_Butters:_ ** _Oh yeah? :) Well, I think I’m a rather tough cookie to crack!_

_**Butters:** I guess we’ll never know. _

**_Butters:_ ** _What did you do when you’d skip school, anyway? :0_

Kenny read over the messages he missed, feeling a smile already force its way onto his face. He continued walking, using only his peripheral vision to tell him where he was going as he got to work continuing the conversation. 

_ah just stupid shit usually it was jus me and stan goofing off somewhere lol_

_we hung out in the junkyard once and pretended we were driving the broken down cars_

_was fun af_

_ky liked to join along sometimes but he cared abt school too much smfh_

**_Butters:_ ** _That sounds so fun!! I kinda wish I got to go out and do things more when I was in school. But I guess it worked out anyway! :D I like my job!_

_well no harm done then lol u should feel real proud having a job you enjoy_

_u worked for that shit_

**_Butters:_ ** _Aw gee, thanks Kenny! :D_

_Do you have to work today?_

_yep ): sadly_

_its k i at least get out at like 5_

**_Butters:_ ** _Oh! So do I! :) Do you wanna maybe hang out when we get off work? I could pick you up!_

Kenny stopped in front of the milk as he read over the message. He suddenly felt so nervous and his stomach was even feeling a little weird. He couldn’t feel a single inch of his body telling him to say no though. 

_hell yeah that sounds fun im down :)_

_can u pick me up at my apartment at 6_

**_Butters:_ ** _Sure! If that works for you! :D We could go grab some food or something!_

Kenny finally looked up so he could look through the supply of milk in front of him. It didn’t take long for him to find the 2% milk he was looking for and swinging the glass door open to get to it. Once he had the gallon securely in his hand he flipped around to head back towards where Kyle was. Kenny continued on with the text conversation with his one free hand, albeit a bit awkwardly. 

_sounds awesome_

_well ill stop distracting u from work lol ill see u tonight :)_

**_Butters:_ ** _I’ll let you know when I’m on my way! x3 See you then!_

Kenny smiled at the message just before shuffling his phone back into his pocket. He made it back to Kyle shortly after, carefully putting the heavy gallon into the cart. 

“Milk acquired, sir.” Kenny made a show of bowing down in front of Kyle as he said so, and quickly found it hard to stifle some laughter when he earned a small snicker from Kyle in response. 

Kyle had been in the middle of placing a few frozen pizzas into the cart when Kenny returned. “Thanks. I just finished grabbing the last of the frozen food, so we should be good to go now.” 

Kenny dramatically sighed in relief as Kyle started pushing the cart to get them heading towards the check out. “Oh thank god. This was soo much work, I’m exhausted.”

“Oh shut the fuck up.” 

-

Barely an hour after Kenny and Kyle had returned from their errand run, Kenny was off to work. Thankfully, the shift was decently busy and helped the time go by faster than it did when it was dead during the night shifts. He wished he got afternoon shifts more than night shifts, but it was what it was. 

Kenny made his way right back home the second he was free to leave. He pulled up his phone to double check the time. It was barely five minutes past five. Butters still hadn’t sent him any more texts, so Kenny decided to check in with him as he made the walk back to the train station. 

_r u still down to hang out in an hour_

**_Butters:_ ** _Yep! I’m a little held up at work, but I’ll be over in time to get you! Promise. :D_

_sweet ill be ready :)_

Kenny felt like Butters’ endless use of emoticons was already beginning to rub off on him. Not necessarily a bad thing, but was definitely something he just noticed. 

A short train ride later, Kenny got himself safely into his apartment and immediately let his eyes fall onto the pair on the couch in front of him.

“Sup.” Kenny briefly greeted them as he stepped over. 

Kyle smiled as he looked up from the computer that Stan was hunched over next to him. “Hey Kenny. How was work?”

“Good. Busy. I’m just glad it’s over.” Kenny sighed, stepping over a bit more to peer at the computer screen. “What are you two doing?”

Stan suddenly groaned, leaning himself back against the couch. “Homework. Kyle said he would help me with it.”

“And I am helping! Come on, we are making progress. Once it’s done you don’t have to worry about it anymore!” 

Stan gave a sigh as he reluctantly put himself back over the laptop. “This is gonna take all night.”

“You always say that. Just start your assignments anytime other than the night before and maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.” Kyle huffed, before turning his attention back to Kenny again with a smile. “We were gonna make one or two of those frozen pizzas I bought while we work on this. You want some?”

“Oh, nah I’m good. I’m about to go out to eat.” Kenny leaned himself against the wall next to the couch, already dreading whatever Kyle was gonna say when he saw one of his brows raise. 

“Ooh. Is that what you were busy texting about earlier?” 

“How do you know I’m not just going out to eat alone?”

“If you were getting food for just yourself you’d just Doordash it.”

“Stalker.”

“I _live_ here, Kenny.” 

Kenny sighed, briefly raising his hands up as if in defeat. “Alright, you got me. Yeah, I’m going out to eat with my friend.”

“Hope you have fun on your date, dude.” Stan piped in. 

Kenny frowned, trying his best to not get more defensive than necessary. “It ain’t a fucking date. You both suck.” Pushing himself off the wall, Kenny started making his way down the hall towards his bedroom. “I’m gonna go get ready.”

He could hear the both of them giggling away as he walked away, making Kenny quickly roll his eyes. He couldn’t keep a grin from spreading over his face though. He was pretty excited, even if it wasn’t actually a date. 

Kenny took a quick shower and brushed his hair and teeth to rid himself of any stink from the busy shift he just worked. He tried to not put too much thought into his outfit, only picking out something casual. Some torn up jeans and a t-shirt with some band he used to listen to on it along with some clearly overused boots. 

He glanced into the body mirror he had leaning up against the wall as he pulled his parka on over his arms, briefly looking up and down over the outfit to make sure it looked okay. Another smile came over his face when he decided he was pleased with it, and promptly zipped his parka up and pulled the hood over his head.

When he left work earlier he noted it was a lot colder than it was earlier. He was sure as night came it’d only continue getting colder. He was feeling even more grateful for Butters having a car. Kenny hoped it wouldn’t take too long to get one himself. A single look at his paychecks and you’d know that hope was a bit futile though. 

Kenny gave a glance to the time and saw it was already 10 minutes to six. Taking a seat on the end of his bed, Kenny picked up his phone from where it was charging to check for any messages he might have missed from Butters. He missed one, but thankfully Butters had only sent it barely five minutes prior. 

**_Butters:_ ** _I’m ready to head over! You ready? :P_

A bright smile already forced its way onto Kenny’s face as soon as he read the message. The energy Butters put into his texts was addicting. It somehow exactly matched the energy he felt when he talked to him in person as well. Kenny shot him a message back, and Butters was already replying almost instantly. 

_yep im all set ;)_

**_Butters:_ ** _:D oh yay!! I’ll be there soon then!_

_hell yeah_

Kenny locked his phone and swiftly shoved it into his pocket after pulling the charger out of it. He got up to his feet with a sigh, already feeling what could only be described as electricity bubble in his stomach. 

Switching his bedroom light off, Kenny left his room and headed back out into the living room. Stan was alone on the couch now, still nose deep into his laptop. Kyle was in the kitchen, and Kenny was finally noting the familiar scent of frozen pizza in the air. It was already reminding him just how hungry he was, and he was excited to get going. 

“I’m heading out.” Kenny announced to his two friends as he headed for the door. Kyle shot him a smile from where he was at the kitchen counter cutting their pizza. 

“Have fun, Ken. Don’t get into trouble.”

Kenny scoffed, pulling the front door open with an amused smile. “Okay mom.”

“I hate when you call me that.” Kyle groaned. Kenny could only smile wider when he heard Stan snickering from the couch too. 

“I’ll see you guys later.” Kenny gave them a small wave as he headed out the door finally, hearing them each say their own goodbye just before he got the door shut behind him. After he got the door locked, Kenny made his way to the elevator and then down to ground level. He checked for any message from Butters while he was in the elevator, but there wasn’t anything new. He must still be driving. 

Sure enough, when Kenny pushed himself out onto the cold street, he didn’t see any sight of Butters’ car. He blinked a bit, then noticing it was lightly snowing. Well, hopefully it didn’t get too heavy, Kenny shrugged it off and made his way to the curb regardless. His parka getting a few flakes of snow on it wasn’t the end of the world.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Butters’ car pulled up next to him, and Kenny could already see that bright smile coming from Butters through the window. Kenny stepped forward and pulled the door open, leaning down a little to meet his eyes.

“This an Uber?” Kenny decided to playfully ask before giving a small chuckle as he sat himself inside. He felt happy to already get a small laugh out of Butters too. 

“You know you’re supposed to let _them_ ask _you_ for your name, right?” 

Kenny shut the door and shrugged as he started getting himself buckled up. “We all make mistakes.” Once he was settled in his seat he faced him with a brighter grin. “Anyway, I’m starving. Where we going?”

The car quickly started back up and already Butters was pulling them back onto the road and away from the apartments as he answered, “Well, I figured we’d just grab some fast food like we did before! Maybe it isn’t the healthiest, but I was thinking we could go to Smashburger!”

“Smashburger, eh? That sounds real good to me.” Kenny hummed, feeling even hungrier just at the thought. This was definitely better than a few slices of the frozen pizza Kyle tried to offer him. “How was work?”

“Oh, it was okay. The article I was working on took a bit longer to finish than I thought it would, but I got it done so I guess it was good! What about you?” Butters never let his eyes leave the road when he was driving, Kenny noticed. Not so much as even a glance. Kenny found it pretty respectable considering he knew if he was the one driving he’d probably be glancing at Butters more than he should. 

“It was good. Busy enough that it went by quick. And I was lucky enough to not get the stupidest of customers, for the most part.”

Butters laughed again. “For the most part?”

“Yeah. I had some guy come in halfway through my shift trying to return a bag of chips he literally already opened. He said he didn’t want it anymore and was trying to trade it for another bag.” Kenny snorted, shaking his head. “Some people really think they can get away with anything at convenience stores.” 

“What?? He _opened_ it already?” Butters was laughing a bit harder now. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I know!! My manager told me to just refund the guy anyway. Shit’s wack.” 

“The customer is always right, I guess. Even though they aren’t.” 

“Alright, your turn.” Kenny shifted a bit in his seat, never letting his gaze leave Butters. If he was gonna keep his eyes glued to the road, it gave him more leniency to keep looking right? “Tell me about the article you were working on.” 

Kenny had already found a fondness in listening to Butters talk about his writing. Butters took a lot of pride in his work and he always seemed so excited when he got to explain things to him. 

“Oh!” Butters suddenly sat up a little straighter in his seat, but he still refused to let his eyes leave the road and mirrors. “Mysterion is suddenly stopping even more robberies than before! I wrote about a lot of the big ones he stopped this week. I’m not sure what happened, but it’s like he’s working even harder than he did before... I hope I can end up learning even more about him!” 

Nodding a few times, Kenny couldn’t stop a wide smile from coming over his face. Maybe it was a bit selfish that he likes listening to him for a few reasons more than others. Sure, he loved seeing Butters get so excited. But, hearing him talk highly of Mysterion all the time did stroke his ego a little. He couldn’t help it. 

What Butters was telling him he was already aware of, but he felt a little flattered that his efforts were already being noticed. He definitely had been trying even harder lately with trying to stop the rising amount of crime in the city. 

“You keep a pretty close eye on Mysterion, don’t you?” 

Butters’ cheeks went a little pink, and it got Kenny snickering a little as Butters stammered out a response, “W-Well! I mean, it is my job, so- yeah, I do, I guess! It’s more work than you’d think, you know.” 

“Oh, I bet. I’m sure it’s way too much work. It’s really good of you, for like, making the public aware of what’s going on. They deserve to know when they are in danger.” 

Butters finally actually pulled his eyes from the road when they got a red light, and Kenny felt his heart race a bit faster when the sky blue eyes glanced in his direction with a bright smile that could easily warm up the entire car on its own. 

“Thanks, Kenny. I’m glad you think so.” 

Kenny let himself exhale a breath when Butters turned back to the road when the light turned green. They fell into mindless small talk for the next few minutes until they were pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. 

The place wasn’t too busy, so it didn’t take very long for them to order their food and soon enough have their warm meal between them at one of the tables. Their small talk continued on in between their bites of food. 

“I remember seeing a little kitty in the background of one of the pics you sent me the other day. You got a cat?” Kenny couldn’t help but ask. His love for animals almost rivaled Stan’s, so if Butters owned a pet, Kenny wanted to hear all about it. 

Butters beamed at the question, nodding eagerly a few times. “Yes! I have two cats and three hamsters!”

“Hamsters too? That’s epic. What are all their names?”

“My cats' names are Bubbles and Tweak, and my hamsters are kitty, puppy, and frog.” Butters giggled a little, his cheeks flushing a bit pink in embarrassment. “They are kinda silly names. But I love them a lot.”

Kenny perked up a bit now, one of the names in particular catching his attention. “They are perfect names. I’d love to meet them sometime.” 

“Well, next time we have the chance to hang out I’d love for you to come over to meet them! They’d love to meet you too! Tweak is a bit shy but I’m sure he’d warm up to you.”

Kenny smiled at that, chuckling softly. “That sounds great. It’s kinda funny that you have a cat named Tweak. Someone I knew back in South Park had that name.” 

Butters sat up a bit straighter at that, as if Kenny suddenly flipped a switch inside of him. “You know Tweek??”

“Huh?” Kenny was confused now, raising a brow. “Uh, _you_ know Tweek?”

“Of course!!” Butters nodded a few times, a brighter smile coming over his face. “I’ve known him for years! We met online years back. We chat nearly every day! He is who I named that cat after. I know South Park is small but I didn’t think you’d know him, I guess.”

“Oh shit. Wow, that’s insane. It really is a small world, huh?” Kenny laughed a little, shaking his head. “Well, I knew him. I wasn’t close to him or anything though. I only saw him when I’d hang out with his boyfriend sometimes.” 

“Craig?”

Kenny was again thrown off. Although, if Butters was as close to Tweek as he was saying, it only made sense he’d know about Craig too. “Uh, yeah. We didn’t hang out super often but we did here and there.” Kenny snickered. “Craig was always real fun to fuck with.” 

“South Park really is super small, isn’t it?”

“Insanely small.” Kenny snorted, before sighing a little. “Way, _way_ too small. I’m really glad to be out of there.” 

“Well, if you ever visit to see your sister… do you think I could go with you? I really wanna see Tweek. We’ve never gotten to meet up in person before.” Butters was a bit nervous clearly; He was doing that thing with his hands again. 

Kenny tried to reassure him with a soft smile though, nodding. “I don’t see why not. I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever plan on heading there.” 

“Really?” Butters was quickly beaming again. “Oh, thank you, Kenny! I’m so excited!~” 

Seeing Butters so excited made Kenny’s stomach twist, and Kenny couldn’t help but rub the back of his neck a bit awkwardly. “It’s no problem, dude. I think it’d be fun.”

As they finished up the last of their meal they fell into more mindless small talk like they had before. Butters shared many memories he had of talking to Tweek, and Kenny shared a few of his own small memories from South Park. Other than that, it was all useless small talk to fill the silence. 

They didn’t stick around too long after finishing their food since Butters said something about having work to do. Kenny offered to pay for their meal but Butters shot him down and instead paid for all of it himself. Kenny felt a bit bad about it, but Butters had been very adamant about it, so Kenny didn’t put up much of a fight over it. 

Just as quickly as they got to the restaurant, a short drive later they were pulling back up to Kenny’s apartment. Kenny sighed a little as he pushed the door open and pulled himself out of the car only to lean down to meet Butters’ eyes.

“Thanks for the food, Butters. Let me know when you’re free next and I’ll be ready to meet those pets of yours.” 

Butters gave him a bright smile, nodding eagerly. “Of course, Kenny! I’ll be sure to text you.”

“Awesome. I’ll see you later, dude.” Kenny stood up straight now, keeping a hand placed on top of the open door.

“Yeah! See ya, Kenny!” 

Kenny gave one last look to the bright smile plastered over the blonde’s face before reluctantly slamming the car door shut. He only briefly watched the car drive off before letting out a small sigh and turning on his heel to head into the apartment building. 

Kenny worked a night shift the following day, so he saw no harm in going out as Mysterion tonight. He has been trying to go out every night lately, but if he worked too early he wasn’t ever able to stay out too long. With such a late shift though, he didn’t really need to worry about it much this time. 

Later into the night, after telling his roommates that he was going to bed, he made sure to shut his bedroom door and immediately got to work getting into his costume. Before long he was already out the window and running across rooftops as he usually did. He made yet another mental note of finding a way to make this outfit a bit warmer, because the nights seemed to just continue getting colder and colder. It was still lightly snowing, but Mysterion wasn’t about to let the cold stop him. 

Scouring the city for any signs of life, Mysterion kept on the move for a good two hours, but nothing seemed to be happening tonight. It usually wasn’t unusual for there to be quieter nights, but as of late there was much more activity practically every single night. It was oddly quiet. 

Eventually, Mysterion was proven wrong. That familiar obnoxious laugh reached his ears just as he caught sight of the caped figure standing atop the building in front of him. 

“Well, hello there, Mysti!~ I was wondering when I’d find you!” Chaos was beaming at him, his smug grin clear as day even with him standing a good way aways. 

Mysterion growled in irritation already. “Stop calling me that.”

“Oh, did I strike a nerve?~ You should be flattered! Nicknames only show how much I care, dear.” Chaos jumped down from the slightly taller roof and onto the same roof Mysterion was still stood on. Mysterion couldn’t help but tense up, and it immediately sent Chaos giggling. “Sooo tense all the time! Don’t you get sore?”

“What the hell are you doing out here, Chaos?? What, planning on robbing another innocent antique store?” Mysterion completely ignored the question he had been given, narrowing his eyes and staying alert. Chaos was laughing again.

“Of course not! Isn’t it obvious? I was looking for you, _Mysti!”_

Chaos was clearly in a really good mood. Mysterion wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Chaos took a few steps closer, and Mysterion quickly tensed up even more, clenching his fists threateningly. 

“Why?”

Chaos tilted his head, raising a brow as a wider smile came over his face. “Why, what do you mean? We’ve gone through this so many times already, I’d think you were used to it by now, dear! It’s just so fun playing this hero villain thing with you, you know?~ Is it crazy to think I just wanted to see you?”

“This isn’t a fucking game, Chaos.” Mysterion was already feeling more irritated by the second. Chaos always made it very clear he didn’t hate him. If anything, it was the complete opposite. He liked him way too much. Mysterion wanted nothing to do with it. 

“You can say that, but I think it’s quite fun! Games are fun too, aren’t they?~” Chaos attempted to reason his meaning, but Mysterion made it clear he wasn’t the slightest bit amused, so Chaos sighed as he cautiously began to circle around the hero. “Well, whether you find it amusing or not, I was looking for some fun tonight.”

Mysterion kept his eyes locked on him, refusing to let his guard down for even a second. Last time he saw Chaos, the villain was able to stop him without even breaking a sweat. That hadn’t been the first time such a thing has happened either, although that was the first time Mysterion had caught Chaos going as far as to rob a store before. Professor Chaos had always been somewhat of a threat but he never did much harm other than to Mysterion himself. He couldn’t afford to underestimate the annoying blonde anymore. 

“You never seem to have much to say.” Chaos continued when Mysterion didn’t give a response just as he finished a full circle around him to end up in front of him again. “I suppose you like speaking with your fists more than words?~” With that, Mysterion watched as small sparks of electricity began to light up at the villain’s fingertips. 

Mysterion let out a small growl of warning, narrowing his eyes into an even deeper glare. “You’re wasting my time.” He really tried to not start fights himself if he didn’t need to. He refused to pull the first punch unless it was absolutely necessary. So, with Chaos it was no different. No matter how much he did want to punch his annoying face in every time he so much as spoke. He was so smug and had such a fake sweetness to all his words. Mysterion couldn’t stand it. 

“What, don't have time for me?~ That’s quite mean of you, Mysti!” A dramatic sigh was pulled from his lips, and suddenly Chaos flipped around with a flap of his cape. “Well, I guess that means I’ll have no problem getting some extra cash. Bye bye then!~” 

Before Mysterion could even process what was happening, Chaos was suddenly jumping over the edge of the building and onto the fire escape out of sight. 

“Chaos!” Mysterion called out to him with a growl, already breaking into a sprint to the edge of the building to follow after him. With ease he was able to catch up with him at the bottom of the alley, but was stopped from getting any closer to him when a bolt of lightning suddenly blinded him. 

“Oh, _now_ you have time for me?~” Chaos stood a few feet away with that same smug grin over his face when Mysterion was able to see again. “I’m so happy to know it’s that easy to get your attention!~” 

“You are so fucking irritating.” Mysterion sighed out a growl, but it only earned another giggle from the villain. 

“I think you’ll warm up to me soon enough.”

Mysterion could only scoff at that. Warm up to him? As if. “In your dreams. Criminals aren’t my type.” Chaos was giggling again, and at first Mysterion figured it was simply him finding enjoyment from this conversation, but when he started to feel small tingles of electricity against his skin to his right he realized the real reason he was so giddy. He quickly shifted away from the sensation, immediately shooting another glare the blonde’s way, but he was still giggling away. 

“You’re so fun to play with, Mysti.~” Chaos briefly lowered his hands down with another laugh. A raise of one hand though and a larger bolt of lightning was sent his way. Mysterion only barely dodged it. 

He was quickly getting tired of this. Chaos was clearly trying to push his buttons; He wanted to fight. Mysterion had no interest trying to talk any further with him so, if a fight is what he wanted, a fight is what he’d get. A growl rumbled low in the hero’s throat as he went in for a punch, but Chaos was able to dodge to the right from it with ease.

“Ooh!~ I guess I finally struck too many nerves, didn’t I?~ Oopsie!” Chaos laughed again and Mysterion swung another punch. Another miss. He spotted sparks of electricity building up in one of the villain’s hands, but he didn’t give him a chance to get his own attack in and quickly swung another punch with his opposite fist. He successfully got a good punch into Chaos’ cheek, sending him stumbling to the side a few paces.

A larger grin was suddenly pulled over Chaos’ face, even if a bit pained. Surprisingly, he didn’t make any snarky comments however, and instead only raised another gloved hand to quickly fill it with sparks that he shot Mysterion’s way. 

Mysterion again just barely dodged the sparks at the last second, cursing under his breath as he nearly stumbled on his feet in the process. He was so caught up trying to keep his balance that he wasn’t prepared for the villain to suddenly tackle him to the asphalt beneath them. 

“I don’t know how you stop so much crime effortlessly while I’m such a problem for you to beat. You’re so weak, Mysterion.~” Chaos had his hands pressed firmly against Mysterion’s shoulders, pinning him against the ground. Mysterion shifted in an attempt to kick him off but only tensed with a grunt when tingles of pain quickly shot through his shoulders. Chaos’s smug grin only widened at that, and Mysterion could only growl as Chaos lowered his face so their noses were nearly touching. “You can’t stop me... But I think this is way too fun to let it end so easily.” With that, Chaos jumped back up to his feet and off of the hero. 

Mysterion quickly jumped back onto his feet as well the second he could, another growl rumbling in his throat. “I _will_ stop you, Chaos. I can promise you that.” 

Chaos hummed a small tune in his throat as he glanced back towards him, a more genuine smile coming over his face now. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep. Well, this was fun, but I’ll have to be going now. Quite busy, you know.”

“Chaos.” Mysterion growled, attempting to step towards him, but another bright flash of lightning quickly blinded him, stopping him in his tracks. 

“See you soon, Mysti!~ Thanks for the fun!” 

Mysterion groaned, rubbing at his eyes to get his sight back as he could only listen to Chaos run off. By the time he could take in his surroundings again mere seconds later, Chaos was nowhere in sight. 

“God fucking dammit.” Mysterion hissed under his breath, letting his hands fall to his sides. Chaos fought differently than any of the criminals he went against on a nightly basis. He knew exactly how to stop him in his tracks. Those powers of his too… they gave him such an upper hand. 

He didn’t want to admit that what Chaos had said was right. Chaos was, at the moment, simply stronger than him. But, that just meant Mysterion would need to get stronger himself. 

Professor Chaos would be stopped. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u all so much for the support on this story! <3 We are just getting started uwu I have much planned for this..


	6. Frog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my gosh I'm SOO sorry this took so long to put out this month has been so crazy x~x and I've been dealing with writers block I think brr writing has felt so hard??  
> I already have some of the next chapter written though so hopefully I don't take as long for the next one! <3 tysm for reading as alwayss

The blare of his alarm quickly stirred Kenny awake from his peaceful sleep, immediately earning a groan of frustration out of him. Blindly feeling around his bed for the source of the sound, he clicked the alarm off on his phone and slowly forced himself to sit up after a few moments. 

As much as a part of him was already regretting it, he felt thankful he didn’t go out as Mysterion the night before. He had a fully booked day today and he had been determined to get a full night sleep for once beforehand. 

It took him a few extra minutes of scrolling through different apps to actually drag himself out of bed. He took a quick shower and got himself dressed for work. He gave a glance to the clock to see he still had a good amount of time before he’d need to catch the train. Might as well make some breakfast while he had the time. 

Kenny grabbed his phone from his bed and headed out and down the hall for the kitchen. The faint sound of the television reached his ears as he neared and came around the corner. Stan was sat on the couch and he had multiple snacks, cans and wrappers surrounding him on the coffee table in front of him. He looked exhausted.

“Stan? Dude, you look like shit.” Kenny let out a soft laugh as he stepped over to him, glancing to the television in curiosity. “You were in here watching this show when I went to bed last night. Have you slept at all?” 

“No.” Stan shook his head and didn’t move his eyes from where they are glued to the screen. “I’m gonna sleep soon, maybe.”

Kenny glanced to his friend with a hint of worry, but he couldn’t lie and say he had never binged a show before like this too. It was also the weekend anyway. “Alright man. Well, I know you’re all brainwashed and all, but do you want some breakfast? I still got some time before I leave so I was about to make some.”

At that, Stan finally moved his attention from the television and onto Kenny. A smile quickly came over his face as he nodded. “Fuck yeah. Please.” 

Kenny returned the smile and sent his friend a small wink as he headed towards the kitchen. “I gotchu.” The second Kenny was in the kitchen, Stan already had his eyes glued back on the television again. 

Kenny didn’t bother trying to converse with Stan while he cooked, leaving him to stay focused on the show instead. In a short time Kenny came back out into the living room with two plates of some toast, bacon, and eggs. It was nice having such a fully stocked fridge. Kyle refused to ever let it get too empty, and it was such a nice change of pace from what Kenny was used to back home. He found himself cooking fresh food whenever he got the chance to. 

“Bone apple teeth.” Kenny set one of the plates down in front of Stan as he took a seat on the couch next to him.

“Hell yesss. Thanks, Ken.” Stan didn’t waste any time to lift up the plate and begin digging into the eggs first. They didn’t talk much at all as the two ate up the warm meal. Kenny mindlessly watched the show Stan had spent all night watching, but not knowing any context made it all really confusing to him. It was still pretty entertaining regardless at least. 

Kenny kept an eye on the time while he ate, not wanting to lose track of it and end up late for the train. That’d suck total ass. The minute he was finished with his food he pushed himself back to his feet with a sigh. 

“Alright, I gotta head out for work. I won’t be back until later tonight; I’m going to Butters’ place after work.” Kenny raised his voice a little as he moved into the kitchen and set his dish into the sink. 

“Oh yeah? When are you gonna have him come over here? Me and Kyle keep telling you we wanna meet him!” Stan practically whined out the statement from the couch, still in the middle of his own plate of food. 

Kenny snorted out a laugh, shaking his head a few times as he stepped back out into the living room again. “I’m not rushing that. I ain’t about to let you two scare him away.”

Stan gasped in offense, placing a hand over his chest. “Scare him away? Us? We would never.”

“Uh huh.” Kenny gave another nod as he turned and headed back towards his bedroom without another word. He grabbed his parka from where it ended up on the carpet and already got to work sliding it on as he headed back out towards the front door. 

“Have fun, dude. See ya later.” Stan spoke up from where he still hadn’t moved on the couch just as Kenny got to the front door. Kenny returned it with a small salute from one of his hands as he swung the door open. 

“See ya.”

The trip to work was uneventful, and Kenny was beginning to wonder why Butters seemed to take the train to work only that first time they ran into each other. He didn’t have time to ponder on it too long before he was already walking into work and switching off with the employee who had been there before him. 

Like clockwork, halfway through his shift he was greeted by the same guy who always brought in new copies of the newspaper for that day. Kenny found himself, as usual, grabbing one for himself. He started to skim through the front page article in between customers.

**_MYSTERION AND CHAOS CLASH YET AGAIN!_ **

**_Tensions continue to rise as the infamous villain, Professor Chaos, proves to be a challenge for Mysterion yet again…_ **

**_...Some residents living nearby claimed they saw sparks of lightning from their bedroom windows, lending even more proof to the possibility of the villain having some kind of weapon or even a special ability..._ **

**_...seems that there is no end in sight and police continue to have no leads to either parties’ identities..._ **

These articles were beginning to really catch Kenny’s attention and not in a good way. His fights with Chaos all week had been pretty out of sight, or at least he thought so, and yet every new article had plenty of information about them. More than even just a few witnesses could give. A part of him was a bit worried, not sure how else Butters could have got some of the information in these so fast unless he was there to see it happen. 

He didn’t know how far Butters was willing to go just for his job, but he was clearly very passionate about it, so it didn’t feel out of the question to assume he might be putting himself in danger. What if he was trailing him at night to see what he was up to? 

His worries all stayed sunk deep in the pit of his stomach, but he was forced to ignore them when the bell above the door alerted him to more customers coming in. He’d have to deal with this later.

-

Out of pure habit at this point, Kenny was already pulling his phone out as he walked out of the store. He still hadn’t gotten a text from Butters in a few hours and he was already betting the journalist was still busy with work. Thankfully, as usual he got a response almost immediately. 

_hey im ready to head over r u still working_

**_Butters:_** _Sorry! I’m a little caught up at work. I’ll try to meet you there. ^^;_

_no worries ill start making my way over there then_

**_Butters:_ ** _I’ll try to not be long! :D_

Kenny couldn’t help but smile as he read over the message and continued to make his way back towards the train station. Butters’ apartment was not a very long walk from his own apartment so he decided to just take the usual ride home and walk from there. He didn’t bother making a stop at his place to get changed since it was easy enough to just cover his work shirt with his parka. 

The walk there went smoothly as Kenny put all his focus into the music he had blaring into his ears from the earbuds plugged into them. Despite the walk being close to twenty minutes, it only felt like five by the time Kenny was walking up to the tall apartment building. It was almost twice as tall as his own building. Butters had mentioned his apartment number to him previously and also mentioned it being on the 19th floor. 

Kenny had no desire to walk all the way up, so he headed straight for the elevator once he made it inside the building. He was stopped halfway there though when a familiar voice faintly reached his ears through his music from behind him.

“Kenny!” 

Quickly twisting his body around towards the voice as he pulled one of his earbuds out, Kenny already had a smile coming over his face when he was met with the sight of Butters waving him down with that sunshine bright smile. Kenny patiently waited for the blonde to catch up to him. 

“Great timing, Butters. Hey.” 

“Hi! I hope the walk here wasn’t too bad. Sorry I couldn't have come and picked you up.” Butters was already finding things to apologize for. It was already something Kenny had quickly picked up on while talking to him lately. He apologized even when there was no reason he should be. So, Kenny was already quickly shaking his head. 

“It’s no big deal. No need to apologize, you know?” Kenny shrugged, giving him a brighter grin as he got them moving towards the elevator together. “Besides, I like walking. I’m just used to it. It’s free transportation.” 

Butters let out a small laugh as they got into the elevator and it made Kenny’s chest feel a bit funny. He watched as Butters reached up to press the button labeled for the 19th floor, the elevator doors closing soon after. 

“Tweak is probably gonna hide from you at first. He might not even come out before you leave.” Butters spoke up as the machine they stood in hummed to life. “Bubbles will probably be all over you right away though. She loves people.” 

“I’m excited to meet them. Even if one of them won’t wanna return the sentiment. What about your hamsters?”

Butters rocked on his heels a little, tilting his head in thought. “Hmmm… I’m not sure! Sometimes they are scared of people and sometimes they don’t care. I guess it depends how they are feeling. I’ve been gone all day so I’m sure they’ll be attention hungry anyway.”

Kenny glanced up to the little screen above them, seeing it change from 11 to 12 and so on; a faint ding ringing out with each change. “I had rats when I was younger. They hated letting anyone but me touch them though.” Kenny smiled warmly as he recalled memories of his own small pets. “I’d love to get more some day. Don’t got room for them right now though.”

Butters was nodding as the elevator came to a stop at the correct floor. “Well, you definitely should, Kenny! Er, Uh, When you get the chance to, I mean. Yeah!” Butters’ smile only grew even wider despite his fumbling speech. 

The elevator doors opened up, showing the long clean hallway of apartments in front of them. Kenny followed close behind Butters when they got moving again. 

“I think I will. Maybe I could convince Ky to let me make space in the living room for them.” Kenny thought up more possibilities that could successfully allow him to get rats sooner rather than later. He lost his train of thought when the sound of keys being pushing into a lock caught his attention instead. He glanced up to the plate on the wall just next to the door in front of them that had the apartment number written clearly, ‘505’. 

“Sorry it’s a bit of a mess. I meant to clean up last night but I was so tired I fell asleep instead.” Butters was apologizing again. Kenny quietly followed in behind him and immediately started glancing around his surroundings. The apartment was hardly even messy, and if anything it felt insanely clean. There were a few pieces of clothing on the floor near what looked to be the washing machine. Maybe he meant the couple of wrappers on the coffee table? 

“It’s alright. I’ve seen much worse, dude. It’s actually pretty clean in here.” 

_Mrrrow_

Kenny was distracted by the high pitched noise reaching his ears. He glanced down just as he felt a pair of paws press up against his legs and he was greeted with a fluffy, bright grey face. 

_Meow_

The cat meowed directly at him now and it made Kenny chuckle. He didn’t hesitate to return the gesture by reaching down and scratching behind the cat’s ears. “Is this Bubbles?”

Butters was giggling a little too, busy flipping on various lights as he continued to make his way through the small apartment. “It must be, by the sound of it. I think Tweak is already hiding somewhere because he heard your voice.” 

The apartment wasn’t very big but it also wasn’t too small. It was actually about the same size as his own apartment. Only difference was there was only one person living here and not three, so Butters definitely had a lot more space for himself. 

“Well, hey Bubbles. Nice to meet you.” Kenny stood back up straight and began to follow after Butters with the fluffy cat following right behind him. As Kenny walked through the rooms, he found himself observing everything around him. There were various potted flowers and plants in random spots throughout the home and everything was so clean it almost felt as if no one actually lived here. “You keep everything pretty clean, huh?”

“Oh?” Butters’ voice was somewhat muffled by the wall that was stuck between them. Butters was busy doing something in his bedroom while Kenny stayed out in the kitchen. Kenny’s eyes caught the attention of the fridge, which had numerous Mysterion articles stuck to it. His first assumption was that it was just some of Butters’ old articles, but then he noticed these weren’t even Denver newspapers. 

“Sorry, what did you say, Kenny?” Butters’ voice distracted him, now crystal clear in his ears. Sure enough, when he flipped himself around towards the voice, Butters stood there behind him. He was changed out of his nicer work clothes and into something that looked much more comfortable. That was fast.

“Oh. I was just saying you keep this place pretty clean… Uh, you have actual South Park newspapers here?” Kenny quickly changed the topic, raising a hand to point at the familiar articles pinned onto the fridge. It looked like most of them were from when he was just beginning high school. 

“Oh, yes!” Butters beamed the second the papers were brought up, as if that Mysterion switch in him was flipped. “Tweek mailed these to me. I love learning as much about Mysterion as possible so I figured a look at older news on him would be helpful…” Butters’ excitement died down by the time he finished talking, and he looked a bit deflated instead as he began to rub his fists together in front of him. “I guess that’s a bit weird, now that I say it outloud.” 

Kenny quickly shook his head, trying to give him an assuring smile. “It isn’t weird. It’s cool to be so passionate about something.

Already Butters was beaming back to life again, and it filled Kenny with a sense of relief. Bubbles was still busy taking turns rubbing herself against Butters and Kenny’s legs, so Kenny knelt down to give her a few more pets as he continued the conversation. “Where are your hamsters?” He glanced up towards Butters, who quickly stood up a little straighter with a grin.

“Oh! I keep them in my bedroom. You can come see them if you want!” With that, Butters was heading back towards the room he disappeared to earlier. Kenny stood himself up and followed after him. 

As he stepped into the room behind him, Kenny found himself unsurprised by the cleanliness of the bedroom matching the rest of the house. Even his bed was so neatly made that it again only made Kenny think no one actually lived here; this had to just be some type of open house or a set, right? 

The bedroom was very cozy and had much more potted plants around it than the rest of the rooms did. There were various posters and paintings decorating the walls and he even had a television set up on the wall in front of the bed. Kenny also noticed a sliding glass door leading out to a nice balcony and it almost made him feel a little jealous. His own bedroom had just a small window leading out to the cramped fire escape. He could just imagine coming and going for his Mysterion outings from this balcony would be so much easier. 

“Here they are!” Butters announced happily as he motioned to the two decently sized cages he had stacked on top of each other on the floor at the end of his bed. The one on the bottom was twice as big as the one set on top of it and together they were taller than the bed itself. Both cages had multiple floors and various different hiding spots and toys strewn about throughout them. Kenny already saw all three of the hamsters coming to the front of the enclosures as Butters knelt down next to them but as he stepped over himself he watched one of them quickly dart into one of the hiding spots. 

“That one was Cat. He’s pretty shy.” 

Kenny let out a soft breath of amusement, carefully sitting himself down in front of the cages. Bubbles immediately took the opportunity to sit herself comfortably into Kenny’s lap and Kenny returned the gesture by beginning to pet along her back. “So that was Cat, what about these two?” 

Of the two hamsters still running about in the enclosures, the one in the bottom cage was a mix of blacks and whites while the one on top was a scruffy looking tan one. Butters immediately began to point to the black and white one first. “This is Dog.” Then the scruffy one. “And this is Frog. Dog can be a little skittish sometimes but Frog isn’t afraid of anything. Ever.” He started to laugh a little, motioning to the cat in Kenny’s lap now. “Bubbles gets curious and comes up to the cage sometimes and Frog will come up to the front of his cage and start squeaking at her until she runs off. I got worried he was doing it because he is stressed but I don’t think he is. I feel like he'd just go hide if that was it?”

Letting out a small chuckle, Kenny continued to gently pet Bubbles as he leaned in towards the cage a bit more. Frog almost immediately came up to eye level with him to stare at him while Dog went off to hide with Cat. “He really is a tough guy, huh? Even with being so small.” Kenny sat himself up straight again with a glance towards Butters. “What kind of hamsters are they? I don’t know much about hamsters, being a rat guy and all.”

Butters was quickly beaming with that same excitement he always seemed to have when asked about any of his various interests and quickly got to replying, “They are dwarf hamsters! And well, unlike other types of hamsters which are solitary, these ones are much more social. But even so I can only keep two of them together so Frog has to be on his own. I don’t think he’d like to be with the others anyway. Cat and Dog are siblings so they are already used to being around each other and have never gotten into any fights or nothing. And- uhm..” 

Kenny was still busy petting the fluffy cat in his lap as he watched Butters’ face grow a bit red and he was already instinctively rubbing his fists together in front of him. “Why’d ya stop?”

“Oh! Uh-” Butters turned his gaze away, continuing to fumble awkwardly with his hands. “I just didn’t wanna talk your ear off or nothing.”

“What?” Kenny laughed a bit, shaking his head. “It’s cool, dude. I love hearing you talk about stuff you’re passionate about. So, why can’t you keep more than two of them together?” 

Butters quickly eased back up when Kenny gave the assurances, slowly getting back the energy he had when he originally started to ramble. “Oh, well if you’re sure, Kenny! Well, ya see, you can’t keep more than two together because there is a higher chance of fights breaking out. In the wild they tend to run away from fights but when they are enclosed like this there is no way for ‘em to run away, so a lot of the time it ends in death. Even these two, being so close and all, I gotta keep an eye on to make sure nothing happens. If a fight breaks out I gotta separate them as soon as I can. I get pretty nervous every time I’m at work and can’t watch them.” 

Kenny hummed in understanding, nodding a few times. “I see. I guess that makes sense. Have you ever considered keeping them separate while you’re at work?”

“Sure I have! I just haven’t really had the time to go buy another cage for that yet. Maybe I’ll try to next time I have the time.” Butters smiled a bit brighter, pushing himself back up to his feet. “I would let ya try holding them but I think Dog and Cat aren’t feeling up to it. And Frog will probably just bite you.”

“He’ll bite me?” Kenny scoffed, carefully pushing Bubbles off his lap to get to his feet as well. “Well, I suppose I don’t want that. Sounds fine to me.”

Butters rocked on his heels a little as he gave one last look over the cages, probably just double checking everything was in order, before turning back to Kenny again. “Are you hungry?”

“Oh, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.”

Butters gave a soft gasp of concern, shaking his head a few times shortly after. “Well that’s no good! How about I order us some pizza?”

As if on queue, Kenny felt a rumble in his stomach at the mere mention of some food. So, he quickly nodded. “Pizza sounds awesome. I ain’t picky, so you can order whatever pizza you like to eat.” 

“If you say so, Kenny!” Butters gave a bright smile before beginning to fish his phone from his pocket as he headed back towards the door. “I could put on a movie or something for us to watch while we wait for it to get here- and well, I guess while we eat too!~” 

Kenny quietly followed after him, watching the cat that was happily trotting behind the blonde. He hummed softly in agreement, “That sounds good to me. What’s a dinner without some kind of entertainment?”

“Exactly! Well, you get yourself comfy on the couch while I get this ordered. The tv remote should be on the coffee table.” Butters motioned towards the living room after they made it back into the kitchen, and Kenny quickly obliged.

“I’ll try to pick something good for us to watch.” Kenny gave him a small wink as he walked past him. He turned his attention to the cat that chose to scurry ahead of him into the living room, and as he expected, happily jumped up into his lap the second he got himself sat on the couch. 

Kenny turned the television on and began to flip through the various channels available in hopes of finding a movie that may have just started. Luckily, by the time Butters came out of the kitchen and into the living room he landed on some action movie he’d never heard of that had just barely started playing. 

“What’d ya pick?” Butters had his eyes curiously glued to the TV as he sat himself down next to him.

“No idea.” Kenny chuckled a little with a shrug. “Hopefully it doesn’t suck balls or anything.” 

Letting out a small giggle, Butters got himself more comfortable into the cushions. “I guess we’ll have to see!~ The pizza should be here in thirty minutes, they said.”

“Fuck yeah, I can’t wait.”

Sure enough, about thirty minutes later a knock at the door signaled the pizza arriving. Butters happily hopped himself up from the couch with some cash already ready in hand. Kenny listened as Butters had a nice short conversation with the lady at the door before coming back in with the meal. 

Some small talk regarding the quality of pizza in South Park compared to Denver quickly stirred between the two as they got their plates and some drinks from Butters’ fridge. The pair quieted down once they got comfortable on the couch again however, and only broke out into jokes about how bad the movie they ended up picking was as they watched and ate through the entire large pizza Butters had ordered. 

Something felt so natural when he hung out with Butters. Despite them only hanging out in person a handful of times now, it felt like they knew each other for such a long time. It was a strange feeling. That strange feeling only made Kenny want to hang out with the blonde even more though. 

Time seemed to get away from them and even when their movie finished they continued to watch random stuff they’d find on the television while mindlessly chatting about nothing important at all. They even took a trip back into Butters’ bedroom to visit the hamsters again, and Butters happily told Kenny even more facts about the animals. By the time they realized how long it’d been, it was already after midnight.

“Oh hamburgers! I’m sorry for keeping you up this late. You should probably get home.” Butters quickly pushed himself up to his feet from where he was sitting next to the hamster cages, reaching for the jacket he had hanging up on his closet door. “I can drive you home.”

Kenny pushed himself up to his feet, shaking his head with an assuring smile. “Don’t sweat it. I can walk home.”

Butters lowered the hand that had his jacket gripped in it, frowning at him now. “Are you sure? It’s really no big deal.”

“Nah, I like walks, really. You should get some rest. You have work in the morning, don’t ya?”

Attempting to stand his ground, Butters’ frown deepened and he shook his head. “But it’s kinda dangerous out this late. It’d be a lot safer if I drove you, ya know?”

Kenny only shook his head again. “It’s fine, Butters. I can handle myself just fine. It’s not that long of a walk anyway.”

“Well…” Butters sighed, reluctantly putting his jacket back on the hook in defeat. “If you say so.. Let me walk you out at least?”

Kenny wordlessly nodded, and it made Butters quickly lighten back up at the agreement. After double checking to make sure Kenny had his phone and keys, he grabbed his parka that was discarded onto the couch halfway through the night and pulled it on to brave the cold he was expecting outside. 

Bubbles was busy sleeping on top of one of the cushions and Kenny gently scratched her head a couple times, not caring that it would wake her up in the process.

_Mmreow_

“Nice meeting you Bubbles. See ya kitty cat.” Kenny pulled away from the cat and headed towards the front door with Butters following close behind. A short elevator ride later, the pair were walking through the apartment lobby and out into the cold air outside. 

Butters hugged his arms around himself, probably regretting not bringing his jacket with him even if he would only be out for a moment, but he had a bright smile on his face regardless. “Well, stay safe, Kenny. I had a lot of fun!~”

Kenny returned the smile and carefully pulled his parka hood over his head once out in the cold. “I did too. Thanks for having me. I’ll text you when I get home so you know I got there safe?”

“Please do.” Butters nodded a few times, and it made Kenny chuckle a little.

“Will do. See ya later, Butters. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Kenny! Bye.” 

Kenny took a breath and finally got his feet moving through the light blanket of snow that now covered the sidewalks back towards his own apartments. He heard the door to the apartment building behind him open and shut shortly after, and he felt some relief now that Butters was back safe inside. 

Thankfully, the walk home was uneventful, and Kenny hardly even saw another soul out on the streets other than the passing cars along the roads next to him. As he promised, he sent Butters a text the second he was home, letting him know he was safe. 

He noticed that the apartment was dark, letting him know that Stan and Kyle must have already gone to bed, lucky for him. He was honestly feeling exhausted, and didn’t really wanna socialize any further. So, he headed straight for his bedroom to get some well needed shut eye. He was feeling grateful he didn’t have to work tomorrow morning like Butters did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty for reading!! ur comments are always very appreciated! ;w; thank u guys sm for the support! hopefully it won’t take too much longer for the story to get a bit more interesting... we shall seee


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